US Congressman Greg Casar said the case of 5-year-old Liam Tadeo exemplified how President Donald Trump and his immigration enforcement agencies are using children “as bait and leverage to fuel his mass deportation machine,” as it was reported that Tadeo’s family had been forced to arrange for the child and his father to leave the country after they were detained earlier this month.

As KUT News in Austin reported Monday, Victor Martinez Nieto, Tadeo’s father, is now set to be deported to Mexico with his son, rather than risk the child entering the Trump administration’s custody following their detention.

Martinez Nieto was taking Tadeo to a children’s soccer match in Austin on August 16 when he was arrested by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) during a traffic stop. The father and son were eventually taken to South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley, Texas, 150 miles away from home—a facility that has been condemned by Democratic lawmakers and rights groups as detainees, including children, have reported medical neglect, abuse, and poor living conditions.

The administration has refused to release Tadeo to his mother, who lives in Austin, Texas, or other family members. The Department of Homeland Security has routinely claimed that “ICE will place the children with a safe person the parent designates” if their parent is deported, but Tadeo’s case is the latest in which that statement has been called into question.

Casar, a Texas Democrat who chairs the Congressional Progressive Caucus, said he was with Tadeo’s mother on Monday “as she found out what it means to have your child held hostage by ICE.”

US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said Casar, “arrested 5-year-old Liam and refused to safely return him to his mother. As a result, unless Liam’s parents ‘agreed’ for him to be deported with his father, Liam could be entirely separated from his family and put into custody.”

Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch, a lawyer for the family, told KUT News that Martinez Nieto was planning to return to Mexico with his son out of fear that Tadeo would be placed in the custody of the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR), which oversees “unaccompanied” immigrant children.

"Children 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 is just not willing to risk Liam being held alone,” Lincoln-Goldfinch told the outlet.

More than 20,000 children in the custody of ORR have lost access to legal representation under the Trump administration, as ORR has ended federal contracts with groups that provide legal services.

Lincoln-Goldfinch told KUT News that Tadeo’s mother is trying to determine how to reunite with her son, who was supposed to start kindergarten in Austin the week he was detained.

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