An 8-year-old Haitian boy, a third grader in San Diego, went to a routine immigration check-in last week with the uncle who has been raising him. He did not go home with him.
The boy was placed in federal custody at the ICE field office in downtown San Diego, according to the Department of Homeland Security and the San Diego Unified School District, the Los Angeles Times reported. Video recorded by a volunteer observer at the federal building shows three armed federal agents walking the boy away from the field office and into an elevator, NBC 7 San Diego reported.
Who he is
The boy, who has not been publicly identified, attends Fay Elementary School in the City Heights neighborhood. He lost his protected immigration status this year, the Los Angeles Times reported, and has been living with his uncle since his father was deported.
According to the school district, the boy received a letter telling him to meet with an ICE agent. His uncle took him because he did not want to break the law, NBC 7 reported. That is when the boy was taken into custody.
What DHS says
A DHS spokesperson said the man who came with the boy identified himself as his uncle but could not prove he was the child’s legal guardian, so federal agents took the boy into their care. He remains in the custody of the Office of Refugee Resettlement, and it is unclear whether he will be removed from the United States.
School board trustee Cody Petterson said it is not clear where the child is being held. Officials believe it may be Los Angeles, but either way, he said, it is “certainly not with family or with a designated caregiver.”
A school district and lawmakers push back
San Diego Unified Superintendent Fabi Bagula and school board members wrote to top immigration and health officials, saying the boy had been left “without the support of their family, community and their school.”
“Children should not lose access to education simply because of circumstances unfolding around them,” they wrote.
San Diego’s congressional delegation demanded answers from DHS on Tuesday. Guerline Jozef of the Haitian Bridge Alliance was blunt: “This is not child protection. This is state-inflicted trauma.”
Johny Oxeda, pastor of the Fairmount Haitian Community Church, which helped find the boy a lawyer, said he believes the boy will ultimately benefit by going through legal channels.
The crackdown rolls on after the midterms
The case is one of several reported since Election Day, as the administration’s deportation push continues despite Republicans’ heavy midterm losses, the Associated Press reported.
In Los Angeles, masked immigration officers in body armor blocked the emergency room driveway of Adventist Health White Memorial Medical Center in Boyle Heights early Saturday after bringing a detainee there for treatment. The hospital said agents blocked the ER entrance for two hours and that it “does not participate in immigration enforcement.” DHS said, “ICE does not target hospitals, schools, or churches,” and the top federal prosecutor in Los Angeles said two people were arrested for assaulting federal agents.
In central Alabama, twin 19-year-old brothers from Venezuela were arrested while driving back to college the day after the election, according to the AP.
President Donald Trump told CBS’s “60 Minutes” that his crackdown may have been “too tough.” Days later he named Stephen Miller, the architect of his hardline immigration agenda, as White House chief of staff. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin had already posted: “Deportations will continue. This includes on Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Election Day.”
Sources: Associated Press, Los Angeles Times, NBC 7 San Diego, NBC Los Angeles, The Independent.