Hayward family, including child with disability, deported to Colombia after immigration check-in
An immigration attorney says a Hayward mother and her two young sons were deported to Colombia after arriving for what they believed was a routine immigration check-in this week.
HAYWARD, Calif. - An immigration attorney says a Hayward mother and her two young sons were deported to Colombia after arriving for what they believed was a routine immigration check-in this week.
Detained in San Francisco, then deported
Attorney Nikolas De Bremaeker, who works for immigration rights firm Centro Legal de la Raza, said his client, Lesly Rodriguez Gutierrez, and her sons, ages 5 and 6, were detained Tuesday when they appeared at a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement office in San Francisco. For two days, neither family members nor the attorney were able to contact them. On Thursday, De Bremaeker said he learned the family had already been deported and had landed in Colombia.
"It’s honestly horrifying," said de Bremaeker.
He said the family had been living in the Bay Area for about four years after Gutierrez fled Colombia to escape what relatives describe as an abusive relationship. A relative who spoke with KTVU said Gutierrez feared her former partner, whom the relative described as having ties to a violent gang.
"She was afraid her ex-partner would harm her and her two children," the relative said through translation. "He was part of a gang in the city that committed murders and robberies. We had already received several threats from him."
Hearing impaired son
De Bremaeker said the family’s older son is severely hearing impaired and was deported without assistive hearing devices he relies on daily. A relative had been waiting outside the detention center with the equipment, the attorney said.
"The cruelty of not allowing a child who is deaf and desperately needs assistive equipment in order to live, to not allow that child to have that equipment," said De Bremaeker. "It just defies all logic."
Confusion and conflicting information
De Bremaeker said he spent two days trying to determine where the family was being held after their detention.
"We got conflicting information at every step," said De Bremaeker.
At one point, he said he was told they were being held in Louisiana, then Washington state. He later learned they had been in Phoenix before their deportation.
"If we had known that was the case, and if honest information had been given to us, we could have done emergency filings," said De Bremaeker.
De Bremaeker said both Gutierrez’s claims of domestic abuse and her son’s disability would typically be considered factors in an asylum case.
Educators at the California School for the Deaf in Fremont, where the 6-year-old attended classes, wrote a letter urging the U.S. government to allow the boy to return to the Bay Area, saying interruptions to his education could harm his development. A separate letter from California Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond also called for the child to be allowed to return.
In a statement Friday, Thurmond said he was "deeply disturbed" over how the 6-year-old is being treated.
"I am deeply disturbed that a 6-year-old Deaf student from our State Special Schools, who was home sick from school, was detained and deported without access critical medical devices that support him to hear. This innocent child is being deprived of both education and basic, essential communication," said Thurmond.
The superintendent called for the federal government to return the child.
"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 said.
De Bremaeker echoed similar points.
"Just the fact that this has happened in such a hurry, is undemocratic and unworthy of the country that we have, of our institutions," said De Bremaeker
De Bremaeker said he is now preparing emergency appeals on the family’s behalf.
The Department of Homeland Security had not responded to KTVU's requests for comment at the time this story was published.
What Homeland Security is saying
The other side:
On Friday, the federal agency shared the following statement:
"On March 3, ICE arrested Lesly Rodriguez Gutierrez, an illegal alien from Colombia. She illegally entered the United States in 2022 and was RELEASED into our country under the Biden administration. She received full due process and was issued a final order of removal by an immigration judge on November 25, 2024.
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.
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."
Featured
California lawmakers author bills to deter immigration enforcement
State and federal lawmakers representing Silicon Valley are advancing new legislation aimed at curbing immigration enforcement in their districts and statewide.