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The U.S. State Department recommends caution when traveling to Ecuador, citing kidnappings and murders in the country. Tourists have been robbed at gunpoint on beaches and on hiking trails, according to the travel advisory.

That’s exactly why Liam Conejo Ramos’ father doesn’t want his family to have to go back to Ecuador. He said crime is rampant in Quito, the capital. 

“It would be a struggle,” said Adrian Conejo Arias, in an interview with MPR News conducted in Spanish. “You’d also be afraid to even step out onto the streets because of all the insecurity.” 

The family’s immigration lawyer said they would be targeted because of their perceived wealth if they are removed from the U.S. and sent back to their home country — which is exactly what a judge ordered in February. 

They are appealing the decision, but according to their lawyer, the Board of Immigration Appeals affirms previous judges’ orders about 90 percent of the time.

U.S. Immigration Judge John Burns — the judge who denied their asylum claim — denied 96 percent of 1,128 asylum claims between fiscal year 2020 and the first 11 months of 2025, according to a Syracuse University analysis. 

Conejo Arias said violent crime in his home country is why they left the country and applied for asylum in the United States. 

“We wouldn’t have the same resources that we have here. There wouldn’t be the same opportunities for our children,” Conejo Arias said. “We want something better for them, a better future.”

They were following the legal immigration process when 5-year-old Liam and his father were detained by ICE in Columbia Heights and sent to a detention center in Texas. 

The family’s immigration lawyer, Danielle Molliver with Nwokocha & Operana Law Offices in Minneapolis, told MPR News last week that the firm will appeal the decision by the April 7 deadline. The government must file its argument against the appeal by April 28.

An appeals process can take months or years, but the Trump administration has pushed for 

 against Liam’s family and other families who have sought asylum claims. President Donald Trump shut down the app shortly after his second inauguration in 2025.

Conejo Arias said he wasn’t surprised by the judge’s decision because the hearing dates were fast and “extremely close together.”

“We weren’t given the opportunity to mount a proper defense and now they are rushing things though,” he said.

Molliver said the level of harm suffered by the Conejo family in Ecuador “would meet the definition of persecution.” She said they were persecuted for being Indigenous. 

Conejo Arias “was harmed and threatened by particular people,” Molliver said referring to his time in Ecuador. “The police were of no help. The government is complicit.”

“If they were to go back there, they would probably be tortured or harmed again,” Molliver said. 

Molliver also said she fears the family would have a target on its back if they were to be deported to Ecuador. 

“The notoriety is an issue,” she said. “Americans are targeted all the time, but so are, unfortunately, deportees that get sent back to their countries are often misperceived as having money.”

“So we’re pretty confident that they cannot safely return to Ecuador,” Molliver said. 

The notoriety she refers to goes back to the day Liam and his father were taken outside their former home in Columbia Heights. They were detained Jan. 20 and the image of him wearing a sky-blue bunny hat and a Spiderman backpack went viral. Father and son were sent to a family detention center in Dilley, Texas. 

Liam came to represent the children caught up in Minnesota’s immigration enforcement surge. In the Columbia Heights school district alone,

 A second grader and a fifth grader at Liam’s school were 

A federal judge ordered Liam and his father’s release on Jan. 31.

Conejo Arias said Liam still wears the hat, but only in his home. He doesn’t wear it out because he doesn’t want to be recognized.

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Columbia Heights Public Schools, where Liam once attended, issued a statement, calling the judge’s decision “heartbreaking,” but officials “remain hopeful for a positive outcome.” It said their thoughts are with Liam and the family.

The Conejos’ detention, the statement said, “shed light on the harm caused by Operation Metro Surge.”

“While we respect the legal process, we cannot ignore the profound human impact — especially on children — of this federal action, which has disrupted the lives of so many of our community members who entered this country through legal means,” the statement read.

Conejo Arias knows exactly what he’d say if he had the chance to speak with Trump.

“I would speak to him about the children — about how they are being separated from their parents and suffering so much,” he said. “I would ask him to show more feeling, more heart and to stop doing what he has been doing and continues to do: taking away people’s ability to defend themselves.”

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The family of detained 5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos shares the reasons they left Ecuador to seek asylum in the United States.

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Ben Hovland | MPR News

A young boy with a backpack and blue hat stands next to an SUV.

‘It would be a struggle’: Liam Conejo Ramos’ family fights possible deportation to Ecuador

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