A six-year-old deaf boy who attended the California School for the Deaf in Fremont was deported to Colombia alongside his mother and younger brother after a routine immigration check-in on 3 March, according to California Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond. The child, identified by the California Department of Education as Joseph Rodriguez, was taken into custody without his hearing devices—equipment his school and advocates say is critical to his ability to communicate and develop.
The family's attorney, Nikolas De Bremaeker, said the boy's mother, 28-year-old Lesly Rodriguez Gutierrez, had no criminal record in any country and had been complying with an asylum supervision order at the time of the appointment. According to De Bremaeker, that order should have shielded the family from immediate removal. 'She has a removal order but there are other forms of relief available to her, and given the supervision order she should not have been removed in this way,' he said. 'As long as you comply with (the supervision order), it grants certain protections — those were not followed.'
