California Demands Return of Deported Deaf Child as ICE Enforcement Intensifies
Six-year-old deaf student deported to Colombia during routine check-in, triggering demands from state officials and questions about enforcement protocols for vulnerable populations.
A six-year-old deaf California student was deported to Colombia alongside his mother and five-year-old brother after what was scheduled as a routine immigration check-in on March 3, 2026, prompting California’s superintendent of public instruction to demand their immediate return.
Six-year-old Joseph Rodriguez, his mother Lesley Rodriguez Gutierrez, 28, and his brother were detained at a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement office in San Francisco and arrived in Colombia on March 5, according to Marin Independent Journal. The family was deported without the boy’s assistive hearing devices, according to their attorney with Centro Legal de la Raza.
California State Superintendent Tony Thurmond is demanding the immediate return of the deaf student and his family who were deported to Colombia this week, according to ABC7 Los Angeles. The boy attended California School for the Deaf in Fremont for three years and was making progress learning American Sign Language. Educational services and opportunities for students with disabilities are limited in Colombia, according to FOX40.
Enforcement During Asylum Proceedings
The family were under asylum protection and had been following a supervision order that should have prevented deportation, according to attorney Nikolas De Bremaeker of Centro Legal de la Raza, as reported by Mercury News. The family fled Colombia four years ago to escape an abusive relationship involving a man with gang ties.
“Years of policy around this has not been followed. U.S. attorneys and immigrants rely on the precedent around these protection orders to be followed and this was violated.”
– Nikolas De Bremaeker, Centro Legal de la Raza
The Department of Homeland Security disputed this characterization. DHS stated that Gutierrez received full due process and was issued a final order of removal by an immigration judge on November 25, 2024, according to statements provided to KTVU. DHS stated that parents are given a choice to be removed with their children or place them with a safe person they designate.
Attorneys attempting to file emergency petitions were given incorrect information about the family’s whereabouts, with officials telling them the family was at different locations, according to Marin Independent Journal. The attorney was told the family was in Louisiana, then Washington state, before learning they had been in Phoenix before deportation.
Access to Medical Devices Denied
When the family was detained at their routine ICE check-in in San Francisco, a family member outside could have brought assistive equipment to them, but ICE did not allow this, according to East Bay Times. The child was home sick from school on the day of the ICE check-in appointment and was detained alongside his mother without vital medical equipment to help him hear.
The Intensive Supervision Appearance Program (ISAP) is designed to oversee undocumented immigrants’ compliance with release conditions while on ICE’s non-detained docket. According to DHS guidelines, ISAP “enables aliens to remain in their communities” as they move through immigration proceedings. The Rodriguez family was enrolled in this program when they were detained on March 3.
The child’s mother works as a childcare worker, cleaner and manicurist, and the family appeared “traumatized” upon arrival in Colombia, according to De Bremaeker. “They’re just horrified by the past few days,” De Bremaeker said.
U.S.-Colombia Deportation Tensions
The deportation occurred weeks after diplomatic tensions between the United States and Colombia over repatriation flights. In January 2026, Colombia denied entry to deportation flights from the U.S., prompting Trump to threaten retaliatory tariffs, according to NBC News. Colombia subsequently agreed to unrestricted acceptance of all deportees, including on U.S. military aircraft.
Deportation flights between the U.S. and Colombia resumed in late January 2026 after being suspended for nearly a year, according to ColombiaOne. Colombian President Gustavo Petro had rejected deportation flights in January because deportees were being transported in military aircraft, arguing such treatment depicted migrants as criminals.
- Family detained during routine ISAP check-in despite asylum protections
- Six-year-old deaf child deported without hearing aids or medical devices
- Attorneys given false information about family’s location, preventing emergency legal filings
- Limited educational resources for deaf children in Colombia
- Case follows U.S.-Colombia diplomatic standoff over deportation protocols
Policy and Political Response
At a March 6 news conference, Thurmond demanded the immediate return of the deaf six-year-old boy, his five-year-old sibling and his 28-year-old mother to California, according to the Orange County Register. Thurmond called out Markwayne Mullin, the Oklahoma senator recently tapped by President Trump as the new Secretary of Homeland Security after Kristi Noem was ousted.
Educators at the California School for the Deaf in Fremont wrote a letter urging the U.S. government to allow the boy to return, saying interruptions to his education could harm his development, according to KTVU. Both Gutierrez’s claims of domestic abuse and her son’s disability would typically be considered factors in an asylum case, according to the family’s attorney.
Many immigrants now fear that once-routine immigration check-ins will be used as an opportunity to detain them, as President Trump presses ahead with mass deportations and the number of people in ICE custody has reached its highest level since November 2019, according to a Fortune report on similar cases.
What to Watch
Whether the federal government responds to Thurmond’s demand for the family’s return will test the Trump Administration’s approach to enforcement involving children with disabilities. De Bremaeker is preparing emergency appeals on the family’s behalf. The case raises procedural questions about ISAP supervision orders and whether longstanding protections for asylum seekers remain operative under current enforcement priorities. California senators Alex Padilla and Adam Schiff are in contact with Thurmond about the situation. Any policy clarification from DHS on enforcement procedures for families with disabled children enrolled in alternatives-to-detention programs would affect thousands of similar cases nationwide.