Updated

Updated · Fox News · Aug 27

Mullin Rejects 'Kidnapping' Claim in 5-Year-Old's Deportation as Father Requested Removal Together

Updated

Updated · Fox News · Aug 27

Mullin Rejects 'Kidnapping' Claim in 5-Year-Old's Deportation as Father Requested Removal Together

Q: Why was the father's request to leave his five-year-old son with the mother denied during their recent immigration detention?

It was denied because ICE did not release Liam to his mother during detention, and the agency has not publicly provided a specific reason for that refusal. Publicly, DHS said parents in immigration custody can either be removed with their children or have the child placed with a parent-designated “safe person.” But Liam’s lawyer said that option was not actually made available in this case. She said Victor Martinez Nieto repeatedly asked that Liam be allowed to stay in the United States with his mother, Maria, and that ICE refused. The attorney also said Liam’s mother was not a U.S. citizen and that, once a child is treated as separated from the detained parent, the child can face transfer into Office of Refugee Resettlement custody rather than simply being picked up by a family member. She argued that a parent or caregiver cannot just go to the Dilley facility and retrieve a detained child without a longer federal release process. DHS, while insisting families are not forcibly separated and that parents are given choices, did not answer news organizations’ specific questions about why Liam was not released to his mother. Faced with that refusal and the risk that Liam could remain detained or be transferred as an unaccompanied child, Martinez Nieto ultimately chose to be deported with his son.

1 articles · Updated · Fox News · Aug 27

Markwayne Mullin said the 5-year-old boy deported Tuesday was removed with his father at the father's request, directly rebutting James Talarico's claim that ICE "kidnapped" the child.
DHS said ICE does not separate families by default: parents can choose removal with their children or designate a safe person to take custody, and Mullin said this case followed that process.
Victor Martinez Nieto and his son Liam Tadeo were detained earlier this month in Austin while heading to a soccer match, then held at the Dilley Immigration Processing Center before their deportation.
Talarico had cast the case as a symbol of the Trump administration's immigration crackdown, saying Liam should have started kindergarten this week instead of being detained and deported.
The father's immigration history complicates the dispute: local reporting cited by the story said he was arrested in November 2025, deported in February, and later reentered the U.S. illegally.

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Fox News2h ago

DHS Secretary Mullin Rejects Democrat Talarico's "Kidnapping" Claim Over 5-Year-Old's Deportation

Why was the father's request to leave his five-year-old son with the mother denied during their recent immigration detention?

What specific legal criteria determine whether a detained parent can successfully transfer custody of their minor child to a safe guardian?

How do federal policies balance strict enforcement against repeat offenders with the psychological well-being of young children caught in the system?

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Right100%

Fox News2h ago

DHS Secretary Mullin Rejects Democrat Talarico's "Kidnapping" Claim Over 5-Year-Old's Deportation

Mullin Rejects 'Kidnapping' Claim in 5-Year-Old's Deportation as Father Requested Removal Together

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