A Hayward woman and her two young children — including a 6-year old boy who is deaf and in need of his medical devices — were detained and deported to Colombia by federal immigration authorities after they showed up for an asylum appointment in San Francisco, her attorney said Friday.
For two days following the Tuesday appointment, Lesly Rodriguez Gutierrez, 28, and her children could not be found by her family attorney Nikolas De Bremaeker of Centro Legal de la Raza, who said federal officers gave misleading information about their whereabouts before the three were deported.
“We were told at every point that the family was at a different location, and even up to last night, when I spoke with ICE, they told me a different location than where they actually were,” De Bremaeker said via Zoom during a press conference organized by state Supt. of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond in Los Angeles Friday.
The 6-year old attends the California School for the Deaf in Fremont, said Thurmond, who condemned the deportation. He called for the immediate return of the boy — naming Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.), President Trump’s nominee to replace Kristi Noem as Secretary of Homeland Security.
According to De Bremaeker, the mother, who had received a removal order, was on a supervisory check-in when she was detained. The recipient of a supervisory order is required to periodically check in with an immigration officer and is subject to deportation if they do not report.
“She has a removal order, but there are other forms of relief available to her,” De Bremaeker said.
A statement from the Department of Homeland Security described Rodriguez Gutierrez as “an illegal alien from Colombia” who “illegally entered the United States in 2022 and was RELEASED into our country under the Biden administration.”
Rodriguez Gutierrez “received full due process and was issued a final order of removal by an immigration judge on Nov. 25, 2024,” the statement said.
“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,” DHS said. “Gutierrez chose to be removed with her children, and they returned to their home on March 5.
De Bremaeker alleged that the family’s location and status were purposefully withheld by Immigration and Customs Enforcement in violation of federal law. He added that the child could not access hearing devices while detained.
“It feels intentional that this information is withheld from us and that we are led astray at every point,” De Bremaeker said, and that hindered his ability to seek an emergency order to stop the deportation.
De Bremaeker said the child has had no access to essential medical care and devices since his deportation.
In February, a federal judge in California ruled that ICE was required to provide “constitutionally adequate healthcare” in their in-state facilities after seven detainees filed a federal class action lawsuit against the agency and DHS. At the time, a DHS spokesperson said that the judge’s order was “unnecessary and superfluous given DHS’s medical policy goes above and beyond.”
School officials wrote a letter of support to include in the child’s immigration case, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
“I respectfully and urgently urge all parties involved to consider the profound education and humanitarian stakes for this child. (He) belongs 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 the letter obtained by the outlet.
According to an analysis from The Marshall Project — a nonpartisan, nonprofit news organization that analyzed ICE and Deportation Data Project deportation statistics — ICE has held around 170 children per day on average since the start of the second Trump administration. This represents a sixfold increase when compared to the last 16 months of the Biden administration, according to the analysis.
Thurmond said he has reached out to both of California’s Senators and Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Dublin), who represents the district where the child’s school is located.
“We will be pursuing any avenues, legal, government or other to support this family,” said Thurmond, who is also a candidate in the governor’s race.
