ICE Detained an 8-Year-Old Haitian Boy. Now His Family Doesn’t Know Where He Is

A routine check-in has ended with an eight-year-old Haitian boy in ICE custody, adding another painful chapter to a family already separated by deportation. According to the Haitian Times, the boy’s father had been deported to Mexico, leaving him in the care of his uncle. Now, the child is unaccounted for– according to a California congressman– after being caught up in an immigration system that has already disrupted his family.

His detention comes as hundreds of thousands of Haitians face the loss of Temporary Protected Status (TPS), raising urgent questions about the future of Black immigrant families, extending far beyond the Haitian community.

The boy, a third grader at Fay Elementary School in San Diego, was taken into federal custody on Nov. 5 after accompanying his uncle to a routine immigration check-in, NBC 7 San Diego reported. He was one of thousands of Haitians stripped of their legal protective status under President Donald Trump’s policies.

His father had already been deported to Mexico the previous year, leaving the child in the care of his uncle and cousins. Video obtained by NBC San Diego shows three federal officers escorting the child away from the immigration office shortly after the check-in.

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The Department of Homeland Security defended the decision, saying ICE acted “out of an abundance of caution and to ensure the child’s safety.” The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) maintained that the uncle could not establish legal guardianship and that the boy therefore had to be treated as an unaccompanied minor.

But Guerline Jozef, the executive director of the nonprofit Haitian Bridge Alliance, argued that “they did not give the father the opportunity or chance to actually put in place legal guardianship for the kid,” according to ABC News.

For the family, what should have been a routine appointment became another devastating separation. The San Diego Unified School District said the boy’s uncle brought him to the appointment because he “did not want to break the law,” according to NBC. The child was taken into government custody and transferred to the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR), which handles cases involving unaccompanied immigrant children.

The department notably rejected allegations that ICE had placed a third grader in detention, calling them a “depraved attempt to smear our ICE law enforcement officers.” But that explanation has done little to ease concerns among the child’s family, school officials and immigrant advocates.

California Congressman Juan Vargas condemned the incident. “Targeting a child, taking them away from their community and classmates, and forcing them into detention is despicable. It is inhumane,” Vargas said. He also noted that the boy is now considered “unaccounted for,” while he also called for TPS protections to be restored.

The case is unfolding as Haitian families face the termination of TPS, a humanitarian protection that has allowed Haitians fleeing extraordinary conditions in their home country to live and work legally in the United States, we previously told you. The Supreme Court allowed Trump to end those protections earlier this year. For families who have established homes, jobs, schools and communities here, the consequences extend far beyond simple paperwork.

The news comes on the heels of President Trump’s shocking admission that his immigration policies might have been “too tough.” He told “60 Minutes” correspondent Ross Douthat, “We also took people that had good jobs, that created one violation, or breaking of the law, and that was that they came into the country illegally.”