Tensions flared outside a US immigration detention facility in Texas on Wednesday after state police used tear gas to disperse demonstrators demanding the release of a five-year-old child held under the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown.
About 100 protesters gathered outside the South Texas Family Residential Centre in the town of Dilley, where the child, Liam Conejo Ramos, is being detained alongside more than a thousand others. Demonstrators carried placards accusing federal immigration agents of targeting families and instilling fear in immigrant communities.
Texas state law enforcement officers, deployed in riot gear, moved in to clear the protest, firing multiple tear gas canisters. One of the canisters landed close to two journalists covering the demonstration, temporarily incapacitating one of them, according to witnesses at the scene.
The protest followed a visit earlier in the day by Democratic members of Congress Joaquin Castro and Jasmine Crockett, who were granted access to inspect the privately run detention facility. Castro later said he had spoken with the boy’s father, who described his son as withdrawn and distressed since being detained.
“He hasn’t been himself,” Castro said in a video posted online, adding that the child had become unusually quiet and lethargic. The congressman said the family were asylum seekers and were legally present in the United States at the time of their arrest.
The case has triggered widespread public outrage since images emerged last month showing the young boy wearing a school backpack and a blue hat while being held by immigration officers. The arrest took place in Minneapolis on 20 January, when federal agents detained the child and his Ecuadorian father, Adrian Conejo Arias, outside their home.
According to school officials, the child was used to lure adults from the house before the arrests were made — a claim that has drawn sharp criticism from civil rights advocates. On Tuesday, a federal judge issued a temporary order, halting the family's deportation while the case undergoes review.
Local officials at Wednesday’s protest called for sweeping political action, including cuts to immigration enforcement funding and greater scrutiny of senior federal officials overseeing border and detention policy. Speakers also urged voters to mobilise ahead of the upcoming election, framing the case as emblematic of broader concerns over immigration enforcement.
Congressman Castro went further, calling for the release of all detainees held at the Dilley facility. He disputed the Trump administration's repeated claims that its enforcement operations target dangerous offenders, asserting that none of those detained were criminals.
The White House has not commented directly on the protest or the use of tear gas, but officials have consistently defended the administration’s immigration policies as necessary to uphold the rule of law.
As legal proceedings continue, the detention of a young child has become a powerful flashpoint in the national debate over immigration enforcement, the treatment of asylum seekers, and the use of force by authorities—a debate that shows no sign of easing.
