Rep. Joaquin Castro meets with the 5-year-old boy held with his father at a Texas detention facility

By Ed Lavandera, Norma Galeana, Holly Yan, CNN

Dilley, Texas (CNN) — US Rep. Joaquin Castro met Wednesday with Liam Conejo Ramos, the 5-year-old Minnesota boy taken from his family’s suburban Minneapolis driveway last week after federal agents apprehended his father, the congressman said after visiting the South Texas facility where the pair is held.

“Just visited with Liam and his father at Dilley detention center,” Castro said in an X post Wednesday. “I demanded his release and told him how much his family, his school, and our country loves him and is praying for him.”

Liam has appeared depressed and lethargic since arriving at the South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley, Castro recalled the boy’s father telling him, adding the boy has been sleeping a lot and has not been eating well.

The image of Liam wearing a blue bunny hat and a Spider-Man backpack as a masked federal agent stood behind him circulated widely, drawing outrage from critics of the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement crackdown and how it ensnared even very young children.

Castro, a Democrat who represents Texas’ 20th Congressional District, had said he would visit Liam and his father to check on their welfare. Earlier Wednesday, as he traveled to the facility, Castro said some detainees there were “being locked in their room.”

In a video posted to Facebook, Castro said he “heard from some of the attorneys that their clients are having trouble – that they’re being locked in their room. They’re being kept on lockdown” at the Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Dilley.

In a response sent to CNN, Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said the report wasn’t true.

“The Dilley Immigration Processing Center is NOT on lockdown,” she said in a statement. “Additionally, ICE would NEVER deny any illegal alien medical care. These types of smears are leading to our officers facing a more than 1,300% increase in assaults against them.”

CoreCivic, which manages the center, referred questions to DHS.

Missing his mom and classmates

After they were apprehended, Liam and his father were flown across the country to the ICE family detention center in Dilley.

DHS said Liam’s father is an “illegal alien” from Ecuador and said agents took the boy with them after the father said he wanted Liam to stay with him.

But an attorney for Liam’s family said Conejo committed no crimes and followed “all the established protocols” for legally seeking asylum in the United States, including “showing up for their court hearings.”

Castro, who met with Liam and his father for about 30 minutes in a facility courtroom, said he is concerned for the young boy and his family.

“He said that he misses his classmates and his family and wants to be back at school,” Castro told CNN on Wednesday.

“He keeps asking about that hat and that backpack that are in the picture,” the congressman said. “I think they took that from him.”

Liam’s mother is about four months pregnant, Castro said, and suffered a medical emergency shortly after her son was taken.

“Liam’s father was very worried about his wife,” Castro told CNN. “Right after I got out of Dilley, the first thing that I did was call Liam’s mom to talk to her about the visit and how it went.”

Castro, who is calling for Liam’s release and the disbandment of ICE, said he told Liam and his father many people across the country are rooting for them.

“I told him that we would do everything that we could to get him out of there,” Castro said at a news conference after the meeting.

Castro describes prison-like conditions

While at the facility, Castro said, he met with more than 100 people detained in poor conditions.

“There isn’t always proper medical treatment,” Castro told CNN. “They’re giving these folks the same thing to eat over and over again.” The Dilley facility is “like a prison setting,” Castro added, with the movement of detainees controlled all the time.

Liam and his father also met with Democratic Rep. Jasmine Crockett, also of Texas, who said she and Castro talked to several other young children at the facility.

The mothers they talked to “were concerned about their children,” Crockett said in a news conference. “We heard the same story over and over and over about how they were depressed.”

Castro, Crockett and Democratic Rep. Greg Casar, who was also at the news conference, called for DHS Secretary Kristi Noem to be impeached and said they would not vote for additional department funding in an upcoming appropriations bill.

Crockett said they are asking for the Senate to “stand up for people” and “show them what humanity looks like.”

‘It’s worse than people think’

Dilley has seen fresh protests this past week as word spread about Liam’s case and the reported conditions at the family detention center.

Anti-ICE demonstrators outside the facility clashed with state troopers Wednesday, a CNN crew at the scene reported.

A number of state troopers in riot gear could be seen pushing protesters back. At one point, objects were thrown into the crowd and gas was deployed, according to the CNN crew.

Hundreds of protesters descended on the entrance of the South Texas facility holding handmade signs reading, “Get out” and “ICE out,” the CNN crew reported. Other protesters could be heard singing “This Little Light of Mine” in unison.

The crowd was smaller during the clash.

“It’s worse than people think,” said attorney Eric Lee, who tried to visit clients at Dilley on Saturday.

“The water is putrid. They have to mix baby formula with water that nobody wants to even smell. The food has bugs in it. The food has dirt in it.”

While waiting to see his clients, “Guards came in and suddenly said, ‘Get out. Get out.’ And I didn’t know what was happening,” Lee said.

“As I was walking back to my car to leave, I heard the sound of hundreds of children chanting. … They were chanting, ‘Let us out. Let us out.’”

Children are suffering from ‘a process that’s severely broken’

Texas state Rep. Josey Garcia and other lawmakers protested Wednesday, “not only to stand in solidarity with our congressional delegation as they visit and tour this facility, but also to make it clear to Texans that we’re here to ensure the humane treatment of any detainees,” she told CNN affiliate KABB outside the detention center.

“And we’re here to also demand the immediate release of anyone who is illegally detained.”

Liam’s story has been particularly impactful, Garcia said, especially for parents.

“When children are being separated from their families and taken to another state, that’s just not acceptable. What is acceptable is to fix a very flawed process. And so we’re hoping that this is going to be a wonderful start to that.”

Judge says Liam and his dad can’t be immediately deported

Liam’s father has filed a lawsuit against Noem, US Attorney General Pam Bondi and other federal officials.

A federal judge ruled Monday “any possible or anticipated removal or transfer of Petitioners Adrian Conejo Arias and L.C.R., a minor child, is IMMEDIATELY STAYED until further order from this Court.”

In addition, federal officials “SHALL NOT TRANSFER Petitioners Adrian Conejo Arias and L.C.R., a minor child, outside of this judicial district during the pendency of this litigation and until further Order of this Court,” the ruling says.

When asked for a response the Conejo’s lawsuit and the judge’s ruling, DHS reiterated “ICE did NOT target or arrest a child.”

DHS did not answer CNN’s questions about whether the agency has any documentation to refute the family’s attorney’s statements that Conejo was legally following asylum-seeking protocols and never committed any crimes.

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CNN’s Ed Lavandera and Norma Galeana reported from Dilley, Texas, and Holly Yan reported and wrote from Atlanta. CNN’s Alisha Ebrahimji, Toni Odejimi, Caroll Alvarado and Amanda Musa contributed to this report.