Washington: An innocent photo of a five-year-old boy in the US has sparked a heated debate about immigration policy across the country. Five-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos and his father, Adrian Conejo Arias, who were detained by immigration officials in Minnesota, were released on January 31 following a court order.  The photo of Liam, wearing a blue rabbit hat and a Spider-Man backpack, returning from school quickly went viral on social media. ICE officials then detained him and his father in a Minneapolis suburb and sent them to a family detention center in Dilley, Texas, about 1,300 miles away. The incident sparked nationwide outrage over the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown.

The office of Texas Representative Joaquin Castro said the two were released after court intervention and have now safely returned to Minnesota. Castro’s spokeswoman, Katherine Schneider, confirmed that the congressman personally arrived in Dilley on Saturday night and dropped the father and son off at their home on Sunday.

The case sparked further controversy when neighbors and school officials alleged that federal immigration agents tried to get the child to open his mother’s door and used him as “bait.” However, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has vehemently denied these allegations. The department says the father fled the scene during the arrest and left the child in a running vehicle parked in the driveway.