A six-year-old deaf boy who was deported from the United States after being denied access to his hearing aids by DHS officials is now hiding in Colombia with his younger brother and mother, fearful for their lives, a lawyer has said.
The child, Joseph, is severely disabled and unable to access the specialized healthcare and education he needs in the country, which the family fled four years ago after his mother faced severe domestic violence there.
“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,” Nikolas De Bremaeker, an attorney with Centro Legal de la Raza, an Oakland, California, legal aid service, told The Independent in a statement.
Lesly Rodriguez Gutierrez and her two children were detained earlier this week during a routine check-in at Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Intensive Supervision Appearance Program office in San Francisco. The family had been living in the community of Hayward in the Bay Area since arriving in the U.S. as asylum seekers.
"Ms. Rodriguez Gutierrez was never given a choice to be removed, and never agreed to deportation,” De Bremaeker said. “In fact, when ICE pressured her to sign a document in a language she did not understand, and without access to counsel, she refused.”
“At the routine check-in, ICE at no point explained to Ms. Rodriguez Gutierrez what was happening to them. ICE agents took their photos and fingerprints, tried to force her to sign a document without explanation, and then pushed the family into a vehicle to be put on a flight to a faraway detention facility, all within minutes.”
De Bremaeker said that while Gutierrez and her two boys were at the ICE center in San Francisco, a relative had been sitting outside in a car with Joseph’s hearing aids, which he relies on to communicate. Throughout the process, Gutierrez had begged the agents to allow them to retrieve the devices.
“In a move that shocks the conscience and violates several laws as well as our Constitution, ICE denied Joseph the assistive devices he needs to live,” he said, adding that the youngster was still without the equipment.
Neither he nor his four-year-old brother is currently attending school in Colombia, according to the attorney.
In addition, De Bremaeker said he was given misleading information and was unable to find the family for two days before tracking them down to a detention center in Arizona, before their removal to South America. All three were traumatized by the ordeal.
In a press conference on Friday, De Bremaeker blasted the DHS for dragging the children “from detention center to detention center, to places that are not meant for children,” adding: “They are definitely not built for children with severe disabilities. It’s inhuman, illegal, and unconstitutional.”
Joseph attended California School for the Deaf at Fremont for three years, according to Tony Thurmond, California Superintendent of Public Instruction. He demanded the boy's return to California at the news conference.
Thurmond said he was “deeply disturbed” that the boy was deported without access to his necessary medical devices. “This unnecessary cruelty must end,” he 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 them. I am calling on the federal government to return our student to his school community now.”
The Independent has contacted the DHS for comment on the family’s circumstances in Colombia.
A spokesperson for the department previously disputed De Bremaeker’s claims that Gutierrez had not 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 place them with a safe person they designate. This is consistent with 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.”
De Bremaeker hit back at the DHS’s “string of misrepresentations,” describing them as “extremely alarming.”
“I call on Congress to immediately launch an inquiry into these abuses and due process violations by ICE, and force DHS to bring this family home and allow Joseph to rejoin his classmates at the California School for the Deaf,” he said.
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