A 5-year-old boy in Austin, Texas, was taken into federal custody along with his father just days before he was scheduled to begin kindergarten, according to family members and Spanish-language media reports.
The child, identified as Liam Tadeo, was stopped alongside his father during what the family describes as a routine traffic stop on Sunday, August 17. The pair were reportedly on their way to a youth soccer match at the time. Following the stop, both were transported to the South Texas Family Residential Center, a federal immigration detention facility located in Dilley, Texas, the boy’s mother told Spanish-language outlet N+ Univision.
Footage that spread across social media shows the young boy in tears as agents move to take his father into custody near a vehicle. His aunt, Patricia Resendiz, later revealed in a GoFundMe campaign that Liam had been set to start his first week of kindergarten.
Speaking to N+ Univision, the boy’s mother — who requested anonymity — described receiving a phone call from her son while he was inside the detention facility, during which he told her he loved and missed her.
As of this report, neither the Department of Homeland Security nor U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has issued a public statement addressing the specifics of the incident.
“They Were Just Going to a Soccer Game”
In her GoFundMe post, Resendiz pushed back against the detention, calling it unjust given the circumstances.
“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,” she wrote, describing her nephew as a bright and warm-hearted child and noting that her sister has been left shaken by the ordeal.
Lawmaker Calls for Release
Texas Congressman Greg Casar publicly weighed in on the case, drawing comparisons to a separate, widely covered incident involving another 5-year-old named Liam who was detained by ICE in Minneapolis earlier this year. Casar confirmed the Austin case in local media, saying the boy should have been starting kindergarten this week rather than being held at what he called a “trailer prison” in South Texas. He called for Liam’s immediate release, along with the release of other detained children, and urged the closure of the Dilley detention facility.
Details surrounding what led to the stop, along with confirmation of which family members were detained, remain limited as of publication.