As of the latest updates, Liam Ramos has now been held in immigration custody in Texas for five days. He is a minor.
His parents are legal asylum seekers and do not have criminal records.
Under U.S. immigration law, children are not supposed to be treated like criminals. Immigration detention is a civil process, not a criminal one. When minors are involved, long-standing federal rules require that children be released quickly, not kept in jail-like facilities for extended periods.
While there is no hard “48-hour rule” in immigration custody the way there is in criminal cases, federal standards have historically limited the detention of children and families to short periods, with release to parents or sponsors prioritized. Holding a child for days (or weeks) while parents lawfully seek asylum raises serious legal and humanitarian concerns.
Five days may already be “legal” under current federal practice, but that doesn’t make it acceptable.
A child should not be paying the price for a broken immigration system.
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