State Schools Leader Urges ICE to Return Deported Deaf Child to California

California’s Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond is calling for the Trump administration to bring back a deaf child and his family, who were deported to Colombia last week.

Thurmond on Thursday sent a letter to White House officials, stressing the need for 6-year-old Joseph Londoño Rodríguez to resume his education at the California School for the Deaf in Fremont, where he was enrolled before being deported.

For the past three years, Joseph attended the state school, founded in 1860, becoming part of a community of 300 other deaf students — from infants to college age — and their families.

Speaking at the school on Thursday, with an American Sign Language interpreter at his side, Thurmond said Joseph has been isolated and depressed since his abrupt deportation. But Thurmond said that he saw the boy crack a big smile when he was able to speak in ASL with his teacher on a video call earlier in the day.

“Joseph said: ‘I want to come back to school,’” Thurmond said, adding that “no one should be treated the way he and his family have been treated.”

Lawyers with the Alameda County Immigration Legal and Education Partnership, or ACILEP — the county’s rapid response network for immigration legal aid — said that on March 3, Joseph, his little brother and their mother, Lesly Rodríguez Gutiérrez, were summoned to a check-in at the San Francisco office of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, ostensibly to update photos of the children.

But at the appointment, ICE arrested the family. According to the family’s attorney, Nikolas De Bremaeker of Centro Legal de la Raza, they were not permitted to retrieve Joseph’s hearing devices, which a relative had in the car outside, or to make contact with lawyers. They were deported on March 5.

“They were not given a chance to seek humanitarian protection, which they should have under the law and under the Constitution,” De Bremaeker said. He said that ICE “misled us at every turn,” and he slammed the agency for denying Joseph access to his assistive devices.

Not only did ICE’s conduct violate the Constitution, De Bremaeker said, “it shocks the conscience.”

A DHS spokesperson, who would not give their name, told KQED that Rodríguez Gutiérrez “received full due process,” and that an immigration judge ordered her family’s deportation on Nov. 25, 2024. The spokesperson said Rodríguez Gutiérrez was given an opportunity to designate a guardian with whom to leave her children in the U.S., but she “chose to be removed with her children.”

De Bremaeker said Rodríguez Gutiérrez had come to the U.S. with her sons in 2022 to seek asylum, fleeing severe gender-based violence in Colombia. She did not have a lawyer to help with her asylum case, and it was denied.

However, he said, as long as she was in the U.S., there were still avenues to seek protection. De Bremaeker added that after their arrest, ICE thwarted lawyers’ efforts to locate the family and file legal claims on their behalf.

Lawyers filed an emergency petition for humanitarian parole with the Department of Homeland Security early Thursday morning, according to De Bremaeker, so the family can return lawfully and Joseph can continue to attend the deaf school. The petition asked the department to return them to the U.S. by March 18.

The family is currently in hiding in Colombia, De Bremaeker said, because the threats that caused Rodríguez Gutiérrez to flee are still present. He added that without the medical care Joseph had been receiving in California, his health would be at risk.

According to Joseph’s doctors, because of his cochlear implants, he needs ongoing care, or else he faces “risk of infection, meningitis,” De Bremaeker said. “It’s very serious.”

At the press conference, teachers and administrators at the California School for the Deaf gathered to show support.

Speaking in ASL through an interpreter, school superintendent Amy Novotny told KQED the school provides a “critical mass” of ASL speakers, allowing students like Joseph to express themselves and develop relationships with other children and adults. She said Joseph belongs at the school.

ASL is Joseph’s only language, officials said. His mother had only begun to learn it, leaving Joseph cut off in Colombia. He cannot communicate in Spanish or Colombian Sign Language.

In his letter to DHS, Thurmond wrote that “remaining in an environment where ASL is the primary language of instruction is essential for his continued language development and academic progress and overall well-being.”

He added that Joseph is a “joyful student” who has thrived at the school, where he “enjoys dancing, playing with his friends and participating in classroom activities.”

Without this support system, Thurmond warned, Joseph faces language loss, learning delays and social and emotional difficulties. He urged Bay Area residents to contact their elected officials if they are concerned.

Thurmond, who is running for governor, said he is working with East Bay Congressional Rep. Eric Swalwell, another gubernatorial candidate, Rep. Lateefah Simon and Sens. Alex Padilla and Adam Schiff, to pressure the administration to bring the family back.

“If ever there was a case for this administration to walk back these actions,” he said, “this certainly would be the case.”

Thurmond stressed Joseph’s health risks and the language deprivation that he is currently struggling with. “There is no one who can communicate with him,” he said. “No one.”