Texas Judge Accuses US of ‘Cruelty’ in Ordering Detainee Release

A Texas federal judge issued a scathing ruling Saturday ordering the release of a 5-year-old and his father who were detained in Minnesota and sent to a detention center.

In his three-page ruling, Judge Fred Biery for the US District Court for the Western District of Texas criticized the government for “traumatizing children” and for its “ignorance of an American historical document called the Declaration of Independence.”

Adrian Conejo Arias was taken into custody Jan. 20 by immigration agents who first detained his 5-year-old son as the boy returned home from preschool. The boy was directed to knock on the door of his family home and the agents were accused of using him as bait.

A photo of the boy wearing a blue hat with ears and a Spiderman backpack during the incident went viral and generated widespread criticism of the detention. Both the father and son were subsequently detained at an immigration facility in Texas, which is where attorneys filed a habeas petition on their behalf.

Biery, a Bill Clinton appointee, also included a photo at the bottom of his order of the young boy in a hat and backpack as he was detained. The photo was accompanied by citations to two Bible verses, one where Jesus welcomed small children and another stating, “Jesus wept.”

“Observing human behavior confirms that for some among us, the perfidious lust for unbridled power and the imposition of cruelty in its quest know no bounds and are bereft of human decency. And the rule of law be damned,” Biery said in his opinion which he ends by writing, “With a judicial finger in the constitutional dike.”

Biery was born in McAllen along the Texas-Mexico border and served as a county and state judge in Texas before being confirmed in 1994. He was singled out as a potential impeachment target by House Republicans in 1997 unhappy about his decision to block the seating of Republicans who won elections as local sheriff and county commissioner during litigation over absentee ballots.

He previously attracted attention for injecting humor into his opinions. One Biery opinion over a highway construction dispute cited authorities including Barbara Streisand, James Taylor, and Stephen Sondheim, the Wall Street Journal noted in 2011.

In May 2025, Biery denounced efforts to “intimidate judges and physical threats” and criticized administration actions against law firms and lawyers in a speech to the San Antonio chapter of the Federal Bar Association.

“We do not have to pledge our lives and our fortunes as did the Founders, but we do pledge our sacred honor,” Biery said. “We pledge fealty not to the President who nominated us, but loyalty to and abiding faith in the Constitution and the rule of law.”

In a subsequent interview with Bloomberg News, Biery said, “It’s lonely out here.”