ICE accused of detaining 5-year-old on way to soccer game in Texas

Days before he was due to start kindergarten, a 5-year-old Texas boy was taken to an immigration detention center with his father after federal agents stopped them as they traveled to a soccer game, according to his family and Spanish-language news reports.

Liam Tadeo and his father were detained following a traffic stop in Austin on Sunday, August 16, and later taken to the South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley, the boy’s mother told N+ Univision. Video circulating online appears to show Liam crying before his father is arrested as officers escort them into a car. He was due to start kindergarten this week, his aunt Patricia Resendiz said in a GoFundMe.

In a statement to Newsweek on Friday, a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) spokesperson identified Liam's father as Victor Martinez Nieto, a Mexican national whom ICE arrested on August 16 during a vehicle stop in Austin. According to DHS, Martinez Nieto first entered the United States illegally around March 10, 2022, near Laredo, Texas.

DHS said ICE previously arrested Martinez Nieto in Hutto, Texas, on November 15, 2025. The agency said he accepted voluntary departure and was removed from the United States on February 12, 2026, before later reentering the country at an unknown time and place, according to DHS.

DHS said Martinez Nieto and his son remain together at the Dilley facility pending his removal. Responding to criticism of the case, the agency told Newsweek that parents can either be removed with their children or designate a safe caregiver, describing the policy as consistent with immigration enforcement practices under previous administrations.

During N+ Univision’s interview with Tadeo's mother, who asked not to be named, Tadeo called her from the detention center, telling her that he loved and missed her, the Spanish network reported.

Resendiz said in the family’s GoFundMe: "The detention of Liam and my brother-in-law was cruel; they are not criminals—they were simply on their way to a soccer match. Liam is a beautiful, intelligent, and big-hearted little boy. My sister is devastated, and so are we."

Texas Democratic Representative Greg Casar has spoken out in support of the family, saying in a post on X: "ICE just arrested a 5-year-old on his way to a soccer game in Austin. His name is Liam, just like the little boy from Minnesota. He should be in kindergarten this week. Instead he's in a trailer prison in the desert. Release Liam. Release these kids. Close the Dilley children’s prison."

Liam Tadeo’s reported detention comes as Democratic officials and community leaders warn that immigration enforcement has increased in Austin, although ICE has not publicly released data confirming the scale of any recent rise.

Representative Greg Casar, the Texas Democrat who represents the state’s 35th Congressional District, last week told local media that ICE arrests in the city had risen to three or four times their usual level over several days in August. He said activity had been reported in north-central, south and southeast Austin and that his office had asked the Department of Homeland Security for information about the operations.

Casar spoke alongside community leaders after witnesses reported seeing ICE officers handcuffing people outside a Seventh-day Adventist church in Austin’s Rundberg neighborhood. The church operates a free food distribution program near an elementary school. Casar argued that the location of the reported arrests undermined the administration’s claim that its enforcement efforts were focused on people with serious criminal records.

DHS defended its enforcement activity in Austin and told the broadcaster FOX 7 Austin that ICE would not slow down its operations. It identified two Mexican nationals arrested on August 13—Juan Alvarado-Olmedo, "criminal history includes DUIs, assault, contempt of court, larceny, and damage to private property as well as illegal entry and illegal reentry—a felony" and Luis Garcia Fernandez, who had "completed approximately five months of incarceration related to a felony sexual assault offense."

"Being in detention is a choice. We encourage all illegal aliens to take control of their departure with the CBP Home App," the DHS said. "The United States is offering illegal aliens $2,600 and a free flight to self-deport now. We encourage every person here illegally to take advantage of this offer and reserve the chance to come back to the U.S. the right legal way to live the American dream. If not, you will be arrested and deported without a chance to return."

"Under President Trump and Secretary Mullin, ICE is targeting the worst of the worst. Nearly 70 percent of ICE arrests are of illegal aliens charged or convicted of a crime in the U.S.," the DHS added. "Our message is clear: if you come into our country illegally and break our laws, we will find you, we will arrest you, and we will deport you."

Liam Tadeo’s case has drawn comparisons to that of Liam Conejo Ramos, another 5-year-old boy who was taken into federal custody with his father and held at the same family detention center in Dilley, Texas.

Conejo Ramos and his father, Adrian Conejo Arias, were apprehended by immigration officers in Minnesota on January 20 after the boy returned home from preschool. Images of the child wearing a blue knitted bunny hat and carrying a Spider-Man backpack spread widely online, turning his case into a focal point of opposition to the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement campaign.

The DHS said agents were targeting Conejo Arias, not his son, and alleged that the father ran from officers, leaving the child behind. School officials and the family’s representatives disputed the government’s account, saying another adult offered to take the boy but agents declined.

Conejo Ramos and his father were transferred to Dilley before a federal judge ordered their release. The images of the boy continued to feature in the wider backlash against the administration’s immigration operations, which included demonstrations in Minnesota and anti-ICE activism surrounding Super Bowl LX.

The Trump administration has described ICE detentions as necessary to enforce federal immigration law and protect public safety. White House border czar Tom Homan previously said the administration’s priorities were "criminal aliens, public safety threats, and national security threats," adding: "If you’re in the country illegally, you’re never off the table."

Officials have also disputed longstanding criticism of conditions at Dilley. In February, ICE Director Todd Lyons called it "a family residential center designed specifically to house family units in a safe, structured and appropriate environment." In its statement to Newsweek, DHS said the facility is "retrofitted for families" and that children have access to teachers, classrooms and curriculum materials covering subjects including math, reading and spelling, alongside medical care and recreation areas.

Addressing the detention of Liam Conejo Ramos and his father, Vice President JD Vance asked: "What are they supposed to do?" He argued that having a child could not prevent officers from arresting a parent they believed was subject to immigration enforcement.