Overview
- Lesly Rodriguez Gutierrez and her two sons were deported to Colombia on March 5, according to a DHS statement.
- ICE detained the Hayward family during a March 3 supervision check-in in San Francisco; the 6-year-old, who is deaf, was reportedly removed without his hearing devices despite a relative waiting with them.
- DHS says Rodriguez Gutierrez illegally entered in 2022, received a final removal order on Nov. 25, 2024, and chose to depart with her children, adding that the agency does not separate families.
- California State Superintendent Tony Thurmond and educators from the California School for the Deaf are demanding the family's immediate return, citing the child’s medical needs and disrupted specialized education.
- The family’s attorney says ICE gave shifting accounts of the family’s location — including Louisiana, Washington state and Phoenix — which impeded swift court action, and he is preparing emergency appeals.