An 8-year-old Haitian boy in San Diego was taken into federal custody after his uncle took him to an immigration check-in, according to NBC News. The case followed the end of the boy’s Temporary Protected Status, and it has raised questions about the handling of Haitian boy ICE custody in the city.
The boy is a third grader at Fay Elementary School. According to the office of Rep. Juan Vargas, his family does not know where he is being held. NBC News reported this account.
NBC News also reported that a school district letter said the boy lost Temporary Protected Status this summer, after a Supreme Court decision allowed President Donald Trump to end TPS for Haitians.
An ICE spokesperson told ABC News that the uncle could not establish legal guardianship. Agents therefore treated the boy as an unaccompanied child under the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act, according to that account. The spokesperson said the agency did not allege any wrongdoing or abuse by the uncle, and that the boy was removed from the household "out of an abundance of caution."
The Department of Homeland Security disputed reports that the boy was "placed in detention," calling them "false." According to NBC News, DHS said a man claiming to be the boy’s father illegally brought him into the United States, and that the man was removed to Mexico by Customs and Border Patrol, not ICE.
Guerline Jozef, executive director of the Haitian Bridge Alliance, said the uncle followed all the rules and that the boy’s father had been deported. A school board trustee told ABC News that the uncle was listed on school records as an authorized caregiver. According to the school district and an advocacy group, the boy remains in Office of Refugee Resettlement custody.
The accounts differ on the date of the ICE appointment. NBC News says a volunteer observer recorded the scene on video from Wednesday at ICE’s San Diego field office. A report on r/news, citing the school district and an advocacy group, says the appointment took place on Thursday.
For context, TPS for Haitians was a humanitarian designation that shielded hundreds of thousands from deportation after the 2010 earthquake, and it was renewed multiple times. According to NBC News, the boy is among 1,640 unaccompanied minors in the care of the Department of Health and Human Services, per agency data. The Deportation Data Project, as reported by NBC News, found that immigration authorities have taken more than 8,000 children into custody over the past year.
Several key details rest on a single outlet. The NBC News account is the main source for the custody and TPS facts, and the r/news item is a short excerpt that appears to draw on ABC News. The full ABC report was not available. DHS and HHS have not responded to the school district’s letter asking them to reconsider enforcement policies. The Office of Refugee Resettlement does not comment on specific cases, so the boy’s location and status are not confirmed by the agency. The uncle’s own account has not been reported directly, and the boy has not been publicly named.
School district officials are sending additional crisis counselors to Fay Elementary this week. The district has asked DHS and HHS to reconsider how enforcement affects students. Rep. Vargas has called for TPS protections to be restored. It is unclear whether the boy will be removed from the United States, according to the school district and advocates.
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This article was written with AI assistance from the published reporting listed above. It is part of the World Brief daily news podcast.