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Friday, Jan. 23, 2026

Is the 5-year-old Minnesota boy detained by ICE being held in an El Paso facility?

Brandy Ruiz, El Paso Matters
no

Liam Conejo Ramos, 5, and his father, Adrian Alexander Conejo Arias, are not being held at an ICE detention center in El Paso, the family’s lawyer said during a news conference Jan. 22, 2026. 

The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Online Detainee locator confirms Conejo Arias is at the South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley. It does not list minors.

The two were detained by ICE in Minnesota on Jan. 20, 2026, as they were returning from the child’s preschool, according to the Associated Press. 

In Texas, two primary detention centers hold families with children: the Dilley facility and Karnes County Residential Center in Karnes City, according to NPR reporting.

The Camp East Montana detention facility at Fort Bliss is one of the largest immigration detention facilities in the U.S. and is slated to hold up to 5,000 people. It doesn’t hold children.

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