The San Francisco Chronicle: California Congress members demand answers on deportation of 6-year-old deaf child, family
Members of California’s congressional delegation on Monday called for an investigation into the recent deportation of a Bay Area mother and her two young children, including a 6-year-old boy who is deaf.
In a letter sent Monday, the lawmakers demanded that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the Department of State work with the family’s legal representatives to return them back to the United States through humanitarian parole so the deaf child can access their assisted hearing devices and receive medical support.
Congress members also urged the federal agencies to explain what legal basis they used to deport the family, why they withheld the boys’ hearing equipment and how many minors with disabilities have been deprived of their assistive devices.
“This case raises serious concerns about the treatment of vulnerable families and children in immigration proceedings,” according to the letter sent to Secretary of State Marco Rubio and the acting secretary of the Department of Homeland Security.
Three days later, before immigration attorneys could find the family and contest what they believed was an unlawful detention, federal officials deported the family to Colombia. Rodriguez Gutierrez and her children arrived in the U.S. four years ago, seeking asylum after fleeing an abusive partner, according to the family’s attorney, Nikolas De Bremaeker of Centro Legal de la Raza. She did not have a criminal record, he said.
ICE officials said that they deported the family because an immigration judge ordered their removal two years ago and that Rodriguez Gutierrez failed to comply with reporting requirements. The agency said DHS officials gave Rodriguez Gutierrez the option to leave her children with a designated caregiver in the U.S. but she chose to be deported with them.
The family’s attorney, however, said Rodriguez Gutierrez never agreed to deportation.
“In fact, when ICE pressured her to sign a document in a language she did not understand, and without access to counsel, she refused,” De Bremaeker said, adding that ICE officials provided attorneys with confusing and false information about the family’s whereabouts.
De Bremaeker said ICE officials asked Rodriguez Gutierrez to bring her children to the check-in appointment to renew their photos when they were instead detained. During the arrest, Rodriguez Gutierrez asked agents to allow a relative outside the building to bring hearing devices for her son, who is deaf, but the request was denied, attorneys said.
Last week, De Bremaeker filed a humanitarian parole request to the Trump administration, seeking to return the family back by March 18 because the 6-year-old boy was in need of critical medical care. The child had been attending California School for the Deaf in Fremont, according to the school.
“Doctors have put in writing that Joseph is at incredible risk if he doesn’t get the ongoing treatment and care (that he needs),” De Bremaeker said.
He said the child is at risk of infection or meningitis and of “losing the ability to communicate for his entire life.”
Rep. Swalwell said last week that members of his staff traveled to Colombia to deliver hearing aids to the boy. State Superintendent Tony Thurmond and officials from the California School for the Deaf spoke with the family in a virtual meeting last Thursday to check on their well-being.
When officials asked the boy how he was doing, they said he signed, “I want to go back to school.”