Outrage grows after deaf California boy, family deported to Colombia

LOS ANGELES - Visibly angry, California's State Superintendent of Education, Tony Thurmond, demanded the immediate return of a single mother and her two young sons who were deported to Colombia last week. They were detained when they showed up for what their attorney described as a routine asylum immigration check-up.

Lesly Rodriguez Gutierrez' oldest son, age six, has severe hearing impairment and attends one of the California Schools for the Deaf in Fremont. 

Thurmond is particularly upset about reports that a relative of the mother was actually holding the boy's hearing device, outside the immigration office, but ICE agents allegedly refused to let the boy take them before they were taken away.

Nikolas de Bermaeker, their attorney, claims he was "given the runaround" when he tried to locate the family, and told they were at different locations to delay filing an emergency order to fight the deportation. 

It's an "obstruction to access to counsel," he said, calling it both unconstitutional and illegal. 

"The cruelty of that, of not allowing a 6-year-old who is deaf, who desperately needs assistive equipment in order to live, to not allow that child to have that equipment just defies all logic."

The mother, he explains, has been in the country for four years, and has a pending asylum case, involving her fleeing a dangerous ex-partner in Colombia. "It should have prevented her deportation, in the first place," de Bermaeker added.

Thurmond is calling for the immediate return of the family. 

The other side:

The Department of Homeland Security released a statement saying, "On March 3, ICE arrested Lesly Rodriguez Gutierrez, an illegal alien from Colombia. She illegally entered the United States in 2022 and was RELEASED into our country under the Biden administration. She received full due process and was issued a final order of removal by an immigration judge on November 25, 2024.
 
"ICE does NOT separate families. Parents are given a choice: They can be removed with their children or place them with a safe person they designate. This is consistent with past administration’s immigration enforcement. Gutierrez chose to be removed with her children, and they returned to their home on March 5.

"Being in detention and in the country illegally is a choice. Parents can avoid detention and receive a free flight and $2,600 with the CBP Home app. By using the CBP Home app illegal aliens reserve the chance to come back the right legal way and live the American dream."