An 8-year-old Haitian boy who went to a scheduled immigration check-in in downtown San Diego last week was taken into custody and separated from the uncle who had been raising him, in a case that has drawn demands for answers from California lawmakers and the boy’s school district. The ICE San Diego boy case has become the latest flashpoint in the national debate over immigration enforcement.
The boy, a third grader at Fay Elementary School in the City Heights neighbourhood, has not been publicly identified. He had been living with his uncle since his father was deported in March 2025. When a letter summoned the child to meet with immigration officers, his uncle brought him to the Edward J. Schwartz federal building as instructed. Video recorded by Karen Pohl, a volunteer court observer with the group Detention Resistance, shows officers from ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations leading the boy away. Two days later, his school district said it still could not find out where he was being held.
The Government’s Account
The Department of Homeland Security says the uncle could not prove he was the boy’s legal guardian. A spokesperson told NBC 7 San Diego that ICE confirmed the man was not part of either family unit the child had lived with. Because of that, the department says, the boy counts as an unaccompanied minor under the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act, a 2008 anti-trafficking law. ICE placed him with the Office of Refugee Resettlement, the agency within Health and Human Services that cares for migrant children who arrive without a parent or guardian. The department disputed descriptions of the child’s placement as detention, and said the boy originally entered the country with a man who claimed to be his father, and that this man was removed to Mexico by Customs and Border Protection.
The boy’s immigration protections had ended during the summer following a Supreme Court decision allowing President Donald Trump to terminate Temporary Protected Status for Haitians. On June 25, 2026, the Supreme Court ruled 6-3 in Mullin v. Doe that the administration could end the programme.
Lawmakers Demand Answers
Outrage reached a boiling point this week when California lawmakers, led by US Representatives Juan Vargas, Sara Jacobs, Scott Peters and Mike Levin, alongside US Senators Alex Padilla and Adam Schiff, dispatched a joint inquiry to the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Health and Human Services, demanding immediate clarification of the child’s whereabouts, justification for the reported use of restraints on a minor, and an emergency reunification plan. Guerline Jozef, executive director of the Haitian Bridge Alliance, said the child was transferred to the Office of Refugee Resettlement and that the uncle had complied with the immigration appointment requirements. The Office of Refugee Resettlement confirmed to NBC News that it would not discuss individual cases because of privacy protections covering children in its custody. As of this week, the family was still working to resolve the custody question. Read more on our home page: https://reportrig.com/
