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ICE deported deaf 6-year-old and his family to Colombia during a routine check-in, without his hearing devices

On March 3, 2026, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in San Francisco told asylum seeker Lesly Rodriguez Gutierrez she was reporting for a routine check-in and photo renewal, then fingerprinted, detained, and deported her and her two children — including her six-year-old deaf son, Joseph — to Colombia within minutes, without allowing her to retrieve Joseph's hearing devices or granting her access to counsel. California's state superintendent and the family's attorney said the deportation was conducted under false pretenses and in violation of due process; ICE said the mother had a 2024 final removal order and chose to be removed with her children.

Jurisdiction
Federal
Location
San Francisco, California

Abuses documented

Actors

On March 3, 2026, ICE agents in San Francisco told Lesly Rodriguez Gutierrez, an asylum seeker from Colombia, that she was reporting for a routine check-in and photo renewal for herself and her two children, including her six-year-old deaf son Joseph. Instead, agents fingerprinted the family, pressured Rodriguez Gutierrez to sign an unexplained document, and deported all three to Colombia within minutes — without allowing her to retrieve Joseph's assistive hearing devices, which a family member was waiting outside to deliver, and without granting her access to counsel. [1][2]

The family's attorney, Nikolas De Bremaeker, said ICE misled his team about the family's whereabouts throughout the process, preventing him from submitting emergency legal filings in the appropriate jurisdiction. California's Department of Education and State Superintendent Tony Thurmond said the deportation occurred "under false pretenses," calling it unnecessarily cruel given Joseph's inability to fully understand what was happening. ICE disputed the characterization, saying Rodriguez Gutierrez had a final removal order issued in November 2024 and "chose" to be removed with her children rather than place them with another designated guardian. [1]

Rodriguez Gutierrez and her children had lived in Hayward, California, where Joseph attended the California School for the Deaf in Fremont and was learning American Sign Language. [1][2]

Updates

2026-03-18 — California congressional delegation demanded DHS and State Department answers [3]

Reps. Kevin Mullin, Eric Swalwell, Zoe Lofgren, Lateefah Simon, and Nanette Barragán, and Sens. Alex Padilla and Adam Schiff sent a letter to DHS and the State Department demanding an explanation for the deportation and urging action on the family's pending humanitarian parole applications.

Why we recorded this

Immigration enforcement's authority to detain and remove noncitizens does not suspend due process or the right to counsel, especially for a family that complied with a routine check-in in good faith. Here, ICE used a scheduled photo-renewal appointment to detain and deport a mother and her two children — including a deaf six-year-old — within minutes, denying access to counsel, blocking emergency legal filings, and leaving the child without his hearing devices. This archive records when a routine compliance appointment becomes the mechanism for a due-process bypass.

Sources

  1. Deaf boy was deported from Bay Area under 'false pretenses,' officials say — The Mercury News / East Bay Times investigative accessed August 4, 2026
  2. Swalwell staffer flies to Colombia to give hearing aid to deported deaf boy — KTVU FOX 2 investigative accessed August 4, 2026
  3. Reps. Mullin, Swalwell, Lofgren, Simon, Barragán & Sens. Padilla, Schiff Demand Answers from State Department and DHS After Deaf Six-Year-Old Deported Without Hearing Devices — Office of Rep. Kevin Mullin primary accessed August 4, 2026

See also