Attorneys for the Trump administration are aiming to deport Liam Conejo Ramos, the five-year-old boy whose photograph in a bunny hat in snowy Minneapolis circulated globally after his detention last month by federal officials during the aggressive anti-immigration crackdown there.
The child, Liam, returned home to Minnesota earlier this week after being taken into custody alongside his father last month and transferred to a notorious family detention facility in Texas.
The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said on Friday it is seeking a deportation order for the Ecuadorian boy.But the department has denied that it is seeking to expedite his and his father’s removal from the US after a lawyer for the family characterized the government’s action as such to the New York Times.
The lawyer, Danielle Molliver, described the move to the newspaper as “extraordinary” and possibly “retaliatory”.