A six-year-old deaf boy was deported from the United States alongside his family without access to his hearing aid, according to an attorney representing them.
Family Detained During ICE Check-In
The child, his younger brother, and their mother, Lesly Rodriguez Gutierrez, were detained earlier this week during a routine appointment with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in San Francisco.
The family, asylum seekers from Colombia, had been living in Hayward, California, for about five years before being transferred through multiple detention centers and eventually deported.
Attorney Raises Due Process Concerns
Their lawyer, Nikolas De Bremaeker of Centro Legal de la Raza, said he struggled to locate the family for two days before finding them at a detention facility in Arizona.
According to De Bremaeker, the child was denied access to his hearing aid after a relative attempted to deliver it at the ICE office.
“This child has been dragged from detention center to detention center,” he said, calling the situation “inhuman, illegal, and unconstitutional.”
Officials Demand Child’s Return
The boy previously attended the California School for the Deaf in Fremont. Tony Thurmond, California’s Superintendent of Public Instruction, condemned the deportation and urged federal officials to return the child to his school community.
“No child should be ripped from their home community,” Thurmond said.
DHS Responds
A spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security said Gutierrez received full due process and had been issued a final removal order in November 2024.
Officials said she chose to leave the U.S. with her children, and the family returned to Colombia on March 5.
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