Protesters clash with law enforcement outside Texas facility where detained 5-year-old is held

(HOUSTON) — Law enforcement deployed tear gas during a clash with protesters outside a Texas detention facility on Wednesday, where a 5-year-old boy and his father are being held.

At least two protesters were detained, according to ABC News’ San Antonio affiliate KSAT.

Both U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents and Texas Department of Public Safety troopers were on the scene during the protest, according to KSAT.

Video of the encounter showed troopers pushing back protesters as tear gas was deployed.

Ahead of the protest, community organizers said in a press release they were gathering at the facility to hold “a vigil to amplify the voices and protests of children and families held in detention against their will.”

The facility in Dilley, Texas, is located about 85 miles southwest of San Antonio.

The protest took place on the same day that Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-Texas, met with 5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos and his father, Adrian Alexander, at the center.

Castro said he was able to meet with him and his father for 30 minutes in the facility’s courtroom.

The lawmaker told reporters that he was told by the father that the 5-year-old has “been depressed and has not been eating well” since being detained.

“His father said that Liam has been sleeping a lot, that he’s been asking about his family, his mom, and his classmates, and saying that he wants to go back to school.”

Castro added that there are other children at the detention center, including several under the age of five and a two-month-old baby.

The father and son were detained on Jan. 20 as part of the federal government’s ongoing immigration crackdown in Minnesota.

Images from the young boy’s detainment garnered international attention when he was apprehended by immigration officials shortly after arriving home from preschool while his father was in their driveway, school officials said last week.

The Department of Homeland Security said at the time that “ICE conducted a targeted operation to arrest Adrian Alexander Conejo Arias, an illegal alien from Ecuador who was RELEASED into the U.S. by the Biden administration.”

“As agents approached the driver, Adrian Alexander Conejo Arias, fled on foot — abandoning his child. For the child’s safety, one of our ICE officers remained with the child while the other officers apprehended Conejo Arias.”

DHS’ account differed from what the family’s attorney and school officials said occurred.

“Another adult living in the home was outside and begged the agents to let them take care of the small child, but was refused,” officials from Conejo Ramos’ school said.

A federal judge in Texas on Monday temporarily blocked the removal of Alexander and Ramos, saying that the father and son cannot be removed from the district in Texas pending the habeas case challenging their detention.

At the time of their detention, they had a pending asylum case but no order of deportation directing that they be removed from the United States.

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