A six-year-old deaf boy was deported to Colombia with his mother and younger brother after being detained during a routine immigration check-in at the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) office in San Francisco on March 3, 2026. The family’s attorney alleges that authorities prevented relatives from delivering the child’s medically necessary hearing aids during the detention and subsequent deportation process.
Lesly Rodriguez Gutierrez, 28, and her two sons, including the six-year-old, Joseph, were taken into custody even as complying with required reporting procedures related to her ongoing immigration case, according to statements from her legal counsel and ICE. The family entered the United States without authorization in April 2022 and received a removal order from a federal immigration judge in June 2024, ICE confirmed in a statement.
Niko De Bremaeker, the family’s attorney, stated that Gutierrez had no criminal record. She had been seeking asylum in the U.S. To escape “extreme gender-based violence,” he said. De Bremaeker also noted that Joseph had been attending the California School for the Deaf at Fremont for three years and was making significant progress in learning American Sign Language. The sudden loss of his hearing aids, De Bremaeker argued, has severely disrupted his communication and development.
According to reports, relatives attempted to deliver Joseph’s hearing aids to the family while they were in ICE custody, but were denied the opportunity to do so. Experts say that for a child with a hearing disability, hearing aids are essential for communication and integration, and being deprived of them can cause significant emotional distress, confusion, and isolation.
U.S. Representative Eric Swalwell, representing California’s 14th congressional district, publicly denounced the deportation as “immoral and inhumane.” “How does ruining the life of a six-year-old deaf child craft our community, or our country, any safer? It doesn’t. It makes the country darker,” Swalwell said at a press conference. Swalwell’s staff subsequently traveled to Colombia to deliver Joseph’s hearing aids on March 9, 2026, according to a statement released by the congressman’s office.
ICE stated that Rodriguez Gutierrez was arrested on March 3 after failing to comply with “multiple directives to report.” The agency also confirmed that she chose to remain with her children during the deportation process. The family was held in federal immigration detention centers for two days before being deported to Colombia on March 5, 2026.
The deportation of the Rodriguez Gutierrez family has prompted criticism from human rights organizations, who argue that it highlights a broader pattern of insufficient consideration for the needs of migrants with disabilities within the U.S. Immigration system. Human Rights Watch reported on March 10, 2026, that the case raises concerns about whether U.S. Immigration authorities are meeting their obligations to ensure accessibility and reasonable accommodations for people with disabilities at every stage of immigration enforcement.
This incident follows another recent case where a nearly blind Rohingya refugee was released by U.S. Border Patrol agents and left alone in sub-freezing weather several miles from his home in February 2026, according to reports. His body was discovered five days later.
As of March 11, 2026, ICE has not responded to requests for comment regarding the specific allegations of denying access to the child’s hearing aids or regarding broader policies concerning accommodations for migrants with disabilities. Swalwell has called for the family’s return to the United States, but ICE has not indicated any plans to reverse the deportation order.
