8-Year-Old Haitian Boy Taken at ICE Check-In in San Diego; Six California Lawmakers Demand Answers
San Diego, California — An 8-year-old Haitian boy was taken into custody by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on Nov. 5 (the date given in lawmakers' letter; some reports say Nov. 4) during a routine immigration check-in at a federal building in downtown San Diego and transferred to the Office of Refugee Resettlement, prompting questions in Congress. The boy, a third-grader at Fay Elementary School in the City Heights neighborhood, had lost his temporary protected status earlier this year; his father was deported in March 2025, and he had since been cared for by an uncle whom school district records list as his authorized caregiver.
ICE officers cited the William Wilberforce Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2008, saying the uncle could not prove legal guardianship, and took the boy into custody; video appeared to show the boy wearing restraints as he was led away. ICE said on social media that claims it "detained a third-grader" were false and that the move was "to ensure the child's safety." The Department of Homeland Security also said the boy's father had been removed by the Border Patrol and that the accompanying man's relationship to the boy could not be verified.
California Reps. Juan Vargas, Sara Jacobs, Mike Levin and Scott Peters, along with Sens. Alex Padilla and Adam Schiff, wrote on Nov. 10 to Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin and Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. demanding to know the boy's whereabouts, whether his family had been informed, and when he would be reunited with them, with a reply due by December 1. The school district said the boy had reported as instructed after receiving a government letter.
Source: U.S. House of Representatives
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：加州圣迭戈天际线资料图（2013 年摄）。维基共享资源 CC BY-SA 3.0。 / Photo: San Diego, California skyline (file photo, 2013). Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0).
