Members of Congress demanded answers from the Trump administration on Tuesday after an 8-year-old Haitian boy was taken into federal custody following a scheduled immigration check-in in San Diego last week, separating him from the uncle who has cared for him since his father was deported.
The boy, a third-grader at Fay Elementary School in San Diego's City Heights neighborhood who has not been publicly identified, lost his Temporary Protected Status earlier this year. His uncle brought him to the appointment - on November 4, according to the school district, and November 5, according to the Department of Homeland Security - because he did not want to break the law. He left without the child.
Homeland Security said agents determined the man could not establish legal guardianship of the boy, and the child was therefore classified as an unaccompanied minor under the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act and transferred to the custody of the federal Office of Refugee Resettlement. "Out of an abundance of caution and to ensure the child's safety, ICE determined it was best to remove the child from the household and place him in the care of the Office of Refugee Resettlement," a department spokesperson said.
The department disputes the school district's account. A spokesperson said the man who brought the boy was not part of either family unit the child had been living with, and that allegations that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement took a third-grader into custody to be placed in detention are "FALSE." The boy's father had been deported to Mexico by U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the department said.
San Diego Unified School District officials and the county superintendent wrote to Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on November 6, saying the boy "fell victim" to the administration's termination of Temporary Protected Status and calling for change. The district sent crisis counselors to Fay Elementary. As of November 5, 1,620 children were in the custody of the Department of Health and Human Services as unaccompanied minors, according to the agency's data.
On Tuesday, Reps. Juan Vargas, Sara Jacobs, Mike Levin and Scott Peters and Sens. Alex Padilla and Adam Schiff of California wrote to Mullin and Kennedy demanding answers, saying video footage appears to show the child placed in restraints and raising "serious questions about the handling of this incident." The Trump administration ended Temporary Protected Status for 350,000 Haitians last year.
