DHS Responds to Claims of ICE 'Kidnapping' After Deportation of 5-Year-Old Boy

<p>Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin responded to criticism from Texas Democratic U.S. Senate candidate James Talarico regarding the deportation of a young boy who was detained with his father by federal immigration authorities.</p><p>Victor Martinez Nieto and his 5-year-old son, Liam Tadeo, were both deported on Tuesday. The pair were detained by authorities in Austin, Texas, earlier this month while on their way to a soccer match.</p><p>On Wednesday, Talarico, who has highlighted the case in his criticism of the Trump administration's immigration enforcement agenda, stated that Tadeo, who was set to start kindergarten this week, should have spent his first day of school in a classroom.</p><p>Talarico wrote on X, "ICE kidnapped Liam Tadeo on his way to a soccer game with his dad. Liam should be in kindergarten. Instead, our government has thrown him in a prison camp hundreds of miles from home."</p><p>On Thursday, Talarico posted that Liam had been deported.</p><p>In response, Mullin stated that Talarico "won't tell the American people the full story." He indicated that the boy was deported with Martinez Nieto at his father's request.</p><p>Mullin clarified, "ICE does NOT separate families. Parents are asked if they want to be removed with their children or ICE will place the children with a safe person the parent designates. In this case, both the father and son were deported together."</p><p>Mullin noted that parents are responsible for what happens to their children "just as any U.S. citizen parent who breaks the law is when they are arrested."</p><p>The father and son were both held at the Dilley Immigration Processing Center.</p><p>Fox News Digital has reached out to the family's attorney. Martinez Nieto was arrested by immigration officers in November 2025 and deported in February. He later reentered the United States illegally, according to The Austin American-Statesman.</p>