CBS host Margaret Brennan exhibited shock during Sunday’s “Face the Nation” after Republican Texas Rep. Tony Gonzales said the U.S. should enforce its laws, before questioning the lawmaker how he could support the deportation of a family.
A photo of five-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos being detained by federal law enforcement agents widely circulated in January 2026 and prompted discussions online and in the media. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) subsequently released a statement noting the boy’s father, Adrian Conejo Arias, was the target of an illegal immigrant arrest operation. Ramos, according to the agency, had been caught up in his father’s arrest after his mother declined to take him, leading to the father requesting the child stay with him while in detention.
“So, Trump was not the first president of the United States to detain children. You have this facility, though, in your district, Dilley, and that is for family detentions. That’s where little five-year-old Liam Ramos from Minnesota was held before a judge — that’s the picture of him there — ordered him released,” Brennan said showing multiple pictures. “He was ordered released because his family has a pending asylum claim. A legal process. He had entered with U.S. government permission through a process that the Biden administration had deemed legal, the current administration does not, the CBP One app.”
Brennan went on to state Arias gave an interview to Telemundo in which he argued how his son is “not okay” as he wakes up crying at night and is allegedly “worried he’s going to be taken again.”
“It’s psychological trauma according to the father. And the administration’s still trying to deport him. Do you understand why they are so focused on this five-year-old and his dad if they did come in through the front door with U.S. government permission?” Brennan asked.
“Well, the front door was via an app that Biden knew exactly what he was doing, and he created this huge mess and now President Trump is there to clean up. And immigration— ” Gonzales responded before Brennan jumped in.
Cutting off the Republican lawmaker, Brennan argued Arias and Ramos had come into the United States through the “front door.”
“Through an app that wasn’t vetted. And the bottom line is that he’s likely— they’re not going to qualify for asylum. So, what do you do with all the people that go through the process and do not qualify for asylum? You deport them. I understand the five year old. And it, you know, it breaks my heart. I have a five-year-old at home. I also think, ‘What about that five-year-old U.S. citizen? What about our— ‘” Gonzales said before Brennan cut him off.
“You feel comfortable defending that?” Brennan pushed back.
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Gonzales began to lay out his argument, stating the United States has to have a “nation of laws,” but the CBS host then cut him off for the third time.
“They were following the law,” Brennan said. “That’s the rub is that a new administration deemed the last administration’s regulation not to be legal.”
“We can be compassionate and we can also enforce our laws. And I think that’s the secret sauce that the administration and Congress must do. Let’s enforce our laws, but let’s do it in a humane way. The facility in Dilley, I’ve visited there many times. I’ve visited dozens of different facilities. It is a nice facility. It’s a detention facility for people that are in the country illegally that are about to be deported, but it is a nice facility. Nicer than some elementary schools here in San Antonio.”
Since the arrest of Arias in Minneapolis, he and his five-year-old son were sent to a detention facility in Texas, but were released Jan. 31 by a federal judge’s ruling. The two were then returned to Minnesota on Feb. 1, with the family being granted a continuance after DHS filed a motion to expedite deportation proceedings.
Following the father and son’s release, DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin released a statement noting the facts of the case remain the same as the father had fled agents on foot, abandoning his child.
“For the child’s safety, one of our ICE officers remained with the child while the other officers apprehended Conejo Arias. Our officers made multiple attempts to get the alleged mother who was inside the house to take custody of her child. Officers even assured her she would NOT be taken her into custody. The alleged mother refused to accept custody of the child,” McLaughlin wrote. “The father told officers he wanted the child to remain with him.”
The modern system of family detentions was used under both former presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama. Obama notably deported the most illegal immigrants during his two terms in office.
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