USA US court: Boy must be released from ICE custody
A five-year-old who was taken into custody with his father by federal officials of the heavily criticized US immigration authority ICE has been released.
01.02.2026, 03:06
SDA
A judge in Texas ordered the release of the two by Tuesday at the latest, according to the court document on the decision. The case of the little boy, who was picked up in a raid in Minneapolis in the US state of Minnesota almost two weeks ago, led to great outrage across the country.
The judge used unusually harsh words in his reasoning. The case had its origins in the government's "ill-conceived and incompetently implemented efforts to meet daily deportation quotas - apparently even when this leads to the traumatization of children", the court said. The judge did not rule out the possibility of deportation at the end of proceedings in a specific case, but said that this should be resolved in a more orderly and humane way than the current one.
Critics saw the incident as further evidence of how rigorously ICE officials are proceeding in their operations, which are part of the tightened migration policy of Donald Trump's US government. According to the Department of Homeland Security at the time, the operation was directed against the father, who is believed to be from Ecuador and illegally in the US. According to earlier information from a lawyer familiar with the case, the family is said to have applied for asylum at an official border crossing in December 2024. A deportation order had not been issued.
