ICE Deports Deaf 6-Year-Old Without Hearing Aids, Family Forced Into Hiding in Colombia

A six-year-old boy with hearing impairment, his brother, 4, and mother were detained on the first week of March and deported to Colombia during a routine check-in at the Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Intensive Supervision Appearance Program (Isap) office in San Francisco, said Alameda County Immigration Legal and Education Partnership (ACILEP). The family were asylum seekers from Colombia, and had been living in Hayward, California, for over four years.

The managing attorney for ACILEP, Nikolas De Bremaeker, called for the safe return of the family.

Bremaeker alleged that the ICE denied the six-year-old access to an assistive device that a relative sat with while the family were inside the ICE center. He further alleged that throughout the process, Gutierrez begged the agents to allow them to retrieve the device, but to no avail.

According to the Independent, Bremaeker said, Lesly Rodriguez Gutierrez and her sons arrived in the U.S. in 2022 and filed for asylum in 2023. Although her application was initially rejected, she was later put on a supervision order whereby she had to check in at the Isap every month and use a smartphone app to check in each week.

Bremaeker said Gutierrez fled Colombia as she faced severe domestic violence.

“That violence, combined with her fears for Joseph's life, given his severe disability and the lack of specialized healthcare and education available to him, had driven her to flee,” he said, according to the Independent.

Bremaeker said during the routine check-in, the ICE, allegedly, “took photos and fingerprints of the family, tried to force Gutierrez to sign a document without explanation, and then pushed them to be put on a flight to a faraway detention facility.”

Following the deportation, family members alleged that the ICE first told them Gutierrez and her children were bound for a detention centre in Louisiana. They were later told that they would be bound for Phoenix, Arizona, before going to Washington state, Bremarkar said, according to the Guardian.

“It really feels on purpose,” Bremaeker said about the lack of information.

“It’s chaotic and careless at best and tricking us at worst," Bremaeker added.

Gutierrez and her children were ultimately briefly sent to a detention center in Phoenix and then deported to Colombia. “There was so much chaos, and we weren’t able to do anything to get these fillings that we otherwise would have done because of this pattern created by [ICE],” Bremaeker added.

According to The Guardian, since the family’s deportation, teachers and administrators of the California School for the Deaf in Fremont have pleaded with authorities to return the boy to the U.S. The teachers said since the six-year-old only knows how to communicate in American Sign Language, being sent back to Colombia can have detrimental consequences on his developmental progress.

According to The Guardian, reacting strongly to the deportation of the family, Tony Thurmond, the California superintendent of public instruction, said, “No child should be ripped from their home community and hidden in a detention center. Especially not a Deaf child who is being deprived of the ability to communicate and understand what is happening to him.”

Thurmond also called on newly appointed Department of Homeland Security (DHS) secretary Markwayne Mullin to “call Donald Trump and have this student released and returned.”

Thurmond said, “Senator Mullin, you’ve shown that you’re a tough guy. If you’re a tough guy, get on the damn phone, call Donald Trump and have this student released and returned so that we can continue to provide care for this young man.”

“I am calling on the federal government to return our student to his school community now. These inhumane and illegal attacks on our families must end,” Thurmond added.

In a statement to The Independent, a DHS spokesperson disputed the attorney’s claims and denied that Gutierrez had received due process.

“She received full due process and was issued a final order of removal by an immigration judge on November 25, 2024,” the statement read.

“ICE does NOT separate families. Parents are given a choice: they can be removed with their children or placed with a designated safe person. This is consistent with the past administration’s immigration enforcement. Gutierrez chose to be removed with her children, and they returned to their home on March 5.”

The spokesperson added, “Being in detention and in the country illegally is a choice. Parents can avoid detention and receive a free flight and $2,600 with the CBP Home app. By using the CBP Home app, illegal aliens reserve the chance to come back the right legal way and live the American dream.”