A fundraiser for the family of a five-year-old Minneapolis boy seized by immigration officers and transported with his father to a detention center in Texas raised more than $110,000 on Thursday.
The appeal, “Help Bring 5-Year-Old Liam Home”, was set up by a person named Sarai Orquiz, who said she was asked by the mother of preschooler Liam Ramos to create the fundraiser on her behalf to pay for the legal costs of seeking his release from custody.
“This is an extremely difficult time for her … She is incredibly grateful for the overwhelming support and kindness the community has shown,” the statement said.
Orquiz said she was “in contact” with Erica, the boy’s mother, and that the family “is doing everything they can to reunite with Liam and his dad”, but that legal help was expensive.
“Erica has been in contact with her son and her husband, who have stated they are ‘fine’, but we all understand that the reality of the situation is far from that,” she wrote.
“They were kidnapped and transported across the country without the ability to contact their family or an attorney.”
The appeal’s organizer said that Erica had been added as a beneficiary and was working to link her bank account to receive donations directly.
The fundraiser was temporarily suspended for several hours on Thursday, but by mid-afternoon it was operational again, with donations standing above $110,000.
GoFundMe did not immediately respond to questions, but accounts can be suspended for a variety of reasons, including while the platform checks out the authenticity of an account or a fund’s use or recipient.
Attempts to contact the appeal’s organizer were unsuccessful.
Details in its introduction align with those given by the superintendent of the school district in Columbia Heights, a Minneapolis suburb, on Wednesday, in which she said Ramos and his father were taken into custody while on their driveway on Tuesday, then removed to a detention center in Texas.
Liam, who had just turned five, is one of four children in the school district who have been detained by federal immigration agents during the Trump administration’s enforcement surge in the region over the last two weeks, Zena Stenvik, the superintendent, said.
“For over 24 hours, Liam’s mother had no idea where her son and husband were. She only learned of their whereabouts when the father was finally able to call from Texas,” Orquiz wrote, adding it was “unimaginable” that the child would be placed so far away from his home.
“This sudden separation has left their family heartbroken and desperate to bring them back home. Liam’s mother and siblings miss him terribly and are deeply concerned for his safety and wellbeing.”
Marc Prokosch, an attorney representing the family, said he believed the father and son were together in detention. He said the family had an active asylum case but there was no order of deportation against them
“They did not come here illegally. They are not criminals,” he said.
In a post on X on Thursday, the homeland security department claimed the boy’s father had “abandoned” his son while Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents tried to detain him.
“ICE did NOT target a child. The child was ABANDONED,” the post said.
“On January 20, ICE conducted a targeted operation to arrest Adrian Alexander Conejo Arias an illegal alien from Ecuador who was RELEASED into the US 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.”
The post did not address why the boy was subsequently also taken into detention. It claimed that parents are asked if they want to be removed with their children, or ICE “will place the children with a safe person the parent designates”.
