A 6-year-old deaf boy has been deported with his family to Colombia, a lawyer said

A Hayward woman and her two young children — including a 6-year-old boy who is deaf and needs medical equipment — were arrested and deported to Colombia by immigration authorities after appearing to be hired in San Francisco, her attorney said Friday.

Two days after Tuesday’s appointment, Lesly Rodriguez Gutierrez, 28, and her children could not be found by her family’s lawyer Nikolas De Bremaeker of Centro Legal de la Raza, who said government officials had provided misleading information about their whereabouts before the three were deported.

“We were told all the time that the family was in a different place, and until last night, when I spoke with ICE, they told me a different place than where they were,” De Bremaeker said via Zoom during a news conference organized by state Supt. of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond in Los Angeles on Friday.

The 6-year-old attends the California School for the Deaf in Fremont, said Thurmond, who condemned the deportation. He asked the boy to return immediately – naming Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.), President Trump’s nominee to replace Kristi Noem as Homeland Security secretary.

According to De Bremaeker, the mother, who had received an extradition warrant, was to be examined while in custody. The recipient of the supervision order is required to periodically check in with an immigration officer and is subject to deportation if he does not report.

“He has a warrant to get him out, but there are other ways to help him,” said De Bremaeker.

A statement from the Department of Homeland Security described Rodriguez Gutierrez as an “illegal alien from Colombia” who “entered the United States illegally in 2022 and was REMOVED from our country under the Biden administration.”

Rodriguez Gutierrez “received due process and was granted a final order of removal by an immigration judge on November 25, 2024,” the statement said.

“ICE does not separate families. Parents are given a choice: They can be removed with their children or placed with a safe person of their choice,” the department said. “Gutierrez chose to be removed with his children, they returned to their home on March 5.

De Bremaeker alleged that the location and status of the family was intentionally withheld from Immigration and Customs Enforcement in violation of federal law. He added that the child did not have access to hearing aids while in custody.

“It feels like it’s on purpose that this information is being withheld from us and that we’re missing out all the time,” De Bremaeker said, and that hindered his ability to seek an emergency injunction to stop the eviction.

De Bremaeker said the child has not been able to receive essential medical care and equipment since being deported.

In February, a federal judge in California ruled that ICE was required to provide “constitutionally adequate health care” at their state facilities after seven detainees filed a federal class action lawsuit against the agency and DHS. At the time, a Homeland Security spokesman said the judge’s order was “unnecessary and irrelevant as DHS medical policy goes beyond that.”

School officials wrote a letter of support for the child’s immigration case, according to San Francisco Chronicle.

“I respectfully and urgently appeal to all parties involved to consider deep education and humanization of this child. [He] he is in a classroom where he can thrive, communicate and grow,” Leeza Williams, a teacher at the California School for the Deaf in Fremont, wrote in a letter obtained by the agency.

According to analysis from Marshall Project – a non-profit, non-profit media organization that has analyzed ICE and Displacement Data Project deportation statistics – ICE has detained about 170 children per day on average since the start of Trump’s second administration. This represents a six-fold increase compared to the last 16 months of the Biden administration, according to the analysis.

Thurmond said he has reached out to both California senators and Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Dublin), who represents the district where the child’s school is located.

“We will pursue any means, legal, federal or otherwise, to support this family,” said Thurmond, who is also running for governor.