Wearing a pressed button-down white shirt and slacks, a Haitian boy showed up at a routine immigration appointment in downtown San Diego.
asserted
boy → wear → Diego
Moments later, the neatly dressed 8-year-old was being led away by three immigration officers.
asserted
old → dress → officers
As of Monday, his loved ones do not know exactly where he is being held, a California lawmaker said.
asserted
lawmaker → love → Monday
The scene was captured on a video NBC San Diego obtained Friday.
asserted
scene → capture → video
The video was recorded Wednesday by a volunteer observer of immigration proceedings at ICE’s field office.
asserted
video → record → office
The San Diego Unified School District and members of the Haitian Bridge Alliance, an immigrants rights advocacy group, said the boy was separated from his cousins and uncle, who has been taking care of him after his father was deported last year.
asserted
father → say → him
Guerline Jozef, executive director of the Haitian Bridge Alliance, said in a statement Monday that even though the uncle followed all the rules, “the child was taken into custody and subsequently transferred to the Office of Refugee Resettlement,” which takes custody of children deemed to be unaccompanied minors.
asserted
which → say → children
The boy, who has not been identified by name publicly, is a third grader at Fay Elementary School.
asserted
who → identify → School
He was stripped of his immigration protections this summer after a Supreme Court decision allowed President Donald Trump to end Temporary Protected Status for Haitians, according to a letter school district officials sent Friday to the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees the Office of Refugee Resettlement.
uncertain
which → strip → Resettlement
Temporary Protected Status, better known as TPS, is a humanitarian designation that shielded hundreds of thousands of Haitians from deportation following Haiti’s 2010 devastating earthquake.
asserted
that → know → earthquake
The protections were renewed multiple times over the years as the Caribbean country sank deeper into crisis.
asserted
country → renew → crisis
Currently, a majority of the country’s capital is controlled by gangs after the president was assassinated in 2021.
asserted
president → control → 2021
After TPS was terminated, the child in San Diego received a letter summoning him to meet with ICE officers last week, school district officials said in their letter.
asserted
officials → terminate → letter
His uncle complied and took him to the appointment “because he did not want to break the law,” added the letter, which NBC News obtained Monday.
asserted
News → comply → which
A DHS spokesperson told NBC San Diego that “a man claiming to be the child’s uncle took him to an ICE check-in.”
asserted
man → tell → in
ICE officers said that they could not confirm the man was related to the boy and that “the alleged uncle could not establish legal guardianship of the minor.”
uncertain
uncle → say → minor
As a result, they determined the boy to be an unaccompanied minor, the DHS spokesperson said.
asserted
spokesperson → determine → result
“Out of an abundance of caution and to ensure the child’s safety, ICE determined it was best to remove the child from the household,” the spokesperson said.
asserted
spokesperson → ensure → household
The Office of Refugee Resettlement told NBC News on Monday that it “does not comment on specific cases” in accordance with its own privacy policies to protect the children in its custody.
asserted
it → tell → custody
The third grader is among the 1,640 children considered unaccompanied minors who are under HHS care, according to the agency’s data.
uncertain
who → consider → data
Immigration authorities have taken more than 8,000 children into custody over the past year, according to data from the Deportation Data Project.
uncertain
authorities → take → Project
The office of Rep. Juan Vargas, D-Calif., said that the boy’s family does not know where he is being held and that he is helping them obtain the information they need to find him.
asserted
they → say → him
“Targeting a child, taking them away from their community and classmates, and forcing them into detention is despicable.
asserted
Targeting → target → detention
It is inhumane,” Vargas told NBC San Diego in a statement Friday.
asserted
Vargas → tell → statement
“Additionally, TPS protections must be restored for all who’ve had them unfairly ripped away.”
asserted
them → restore → all
DHS has deemed allegations claiming the boy was “placed in detention” as “false.”
asserted
boy → deem → detention
DHS also said the child was “illegally brought into the United States” at an unspecified time by “a man who alleged to be his father,” who was removed to Mexico by Customs and Border Patrol, not ICE.
asserted
who → say → Patrol
Jozef said, “His father has already been taken from him and deported, now this administration has stripped him of the stability, family, and community every child deserves.”
asserted
child → say → stability
James Canning, a spokesperson for the school district, told NBC News in a statement on Monday that educators at the boy’s school have pointed to “a general sense of concern for the student’s safety and wellbeing.”
asserted
educators → tell → safety
School district officials said they are sending additional crisis counselors to Fay Elementary School this week “because the child’s fellow third grade students have expressed concern and fear for their friend.”
asserted
students → say → friend
Canning said no one at DHS or HHS has yet responded to the school district’s letter asking them to reconsider how immigration enforcement policies are affecting students.
asserted
policies → say → students
The Aporia
