The father of a 5-year-old boy pleaded with ICE officers to release his son to his mother during a traffic stop earlier this month in Austin, Texas, the family’s attorney Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch told Scripps News on Monday.
ICE instead booked both Victor Martinez Nieto and his son, Liam Tadeo, into a for-profit family immigration detention center in Dilley, Texas.
The Department of Homeland Security says parents arrested by ICE can choose to bring their children with them to detention or leave them with "a safe person the parent designates,” but that option wasn’t given to Nieto, Lincoln-Goldfinch said.
“The claim that ‘parents have a choice’ between remaining detained with their children and having ICE place their children with a ‘safe person’ is deeply misleading, particularly in this case,” she said. “Liam’s father begged ICE to release his five-year-old son to his mother—the same release granted to his three-year-old cousin and his uncle on the side of the road. ICE refused.”
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Lincoln-Goldfinch also said it’s not legally possible to have someone pick up a detained child without a lengthy release process involving another federal office.
“A parent or caregiver cannot simply go to Dilley and retrieve a child after ICE separates and detains them,” she said.
The Department of Homeland Security, which answers inquiries directed to ICE, did not immediately respond to those claims or explain why the boy was not given over to his mother.
Video circulated online showed Liam Tadeo in tears while being detained Aug. 16 beside his father, seen in handcuffs. They were on their way to a soccer game, family members have said.
DHS said Nieto had been deported back to Mexico in February before later returning to the U.S. without authorization.
Democratic members of Congress from Texas are demanding ICE allow them to visit Liam Tadeo, who shares the name and is the same age as Liam Ramos, the boy photographed in a bunny hat early this year in Minnesota as ICE arrested him and his father.
Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-Texas, was able to help secure Liam Ramos’ release from Dilley after visiting him there, but has not been able to see Liam Tadeo.
“ICE refused that request. They refused to let me see Liam Tadeo,” Castro said in a video Friday posted to Instagram.
Castro said members of Congress are planning a visit to Dilley this Friday and intend to visit Liam.
They are spotlighting Liam’s detention as an example of children suffering from President Trump’s strict immigration policies.
“I've been to the Dilley Detention Center and none of the kids are doing well there,” said Rep. Greg Casar, D-Texas, in an interview with Scripps News on Friday. “There were little kids asking me as their congressman to talk to the warden about getting them medical care that they had been denied for months.”
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DHS and CoreCivic, the corporate owner of Dilley, have repeatedly defended the care and treatment of detainees held at Dilley.
Liam Tadeo’s mother released a statement calling for the release of her son and his father.
“He was supposed to start kindergarten this week, and instead he is being held in an immigration detention center,” she said. “He should be in school, playing soccer and at home with his family. I am asking ICE to release Liam and his father immediately so that our family can be together again.”
