{"id":415649,"date":"2026-08-24T21:22:13","date_gmt":"2026-08-24T21:22:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/415649\/"},"modified":"2026-08-24T21:22:13","modified_gmt":"2026-08-24T21:22:13","slug":"five-year-old-boy-and-his-father-detained-in-austin-on-their-way-to-a-soccer-game-will-be-deported","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/415649\/","title":{"rendered":"Five-year-old boy and his father, detained in Austin on their way to a soccer game, will be deported"},"content":{"rendered":"

Victor Martinez Nieto, the father of five-year-old Liam Tadeo, has chosen to be deported to Mexico with his son, rather than risk the child being separated from his family by immigration officials, according to their lawyer.<\/p>\n

The father and son were pulled over and detained by ICE agents in North Austin on August 16th, while on their way to a children’s Sunday soccer game.<\/p>\n

The pair\u2019s detention was captured on video. It sparked calls from Congressman Greg Casar and others for Liam\u2019s release and the closure of the Dilley Detention Center where the two have been since their arrest.<\/p>\n

But Martinez Nieto\u2019s lawyer, Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch, says her client has decided to return to Mexico with Liam, rather than risk losing custody of his son.<\/p>\n

\u201cVictor, facing the possibility that he will be separated from Liam […] is deciding to depart voluntarily with this son because the alternative is that Liam could be placed into [Office of Refugee Resettlement] custody as an unaccompanied child,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cChildren can be held in this system for months or even years at a time. It’s a really bad experience for children and the family just not willing to risk Liam being held alone,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

In a public statement last week<\/a>, the Department of Homeland Security wrote, \u201cParents have a choice if they want to be removed with their children or ICE will place the children with a safe person the parent designates. This is consistent with past administrations\u2019 immigration enforcement.<\/p>\n

Lincoln-Goldfinch says that Liam\u2019s family in Austin, including his mother, was not given the option of having Liam released into their custody.<\/p>\n

She said Liam\u2019s mother, who lives in Austin, is figuring out how to reunite with her son.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn a heartbeat, she lost both her husband and her child. And her number one main priority is her son and his well being,\u201d said Lincoln-Goldfinch.<\/p>\n

KUT has emailed the Department of Homeland Security about these developments and will update this story with answers if they are forthcoming.<\/p>\n

Correction: A previous version of this story incorrectly spelled Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch’s last name.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Victor Martinez Nieto, the father of five-year-old Liam Tadeo, has chosen to be deported to Mexico with his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":415650,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[132,134,133,5203,3663,1829,73909,1468,731,2459],"class_list":["post-415649","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-austin","tag-austin","tag-austin-headlines","tag-austin-news","tag-detained","tag-father","tag-ice","tag-liam","tag-mexico","tag-soccer","tag-video"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/415649","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=415649"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/415649\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/415650"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=415649"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=415649"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=415649"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}