*An 8-year-old Haitian boy is in federal custody without his family after his uncle took him to an ICE check-in in San Diego. Agents placed the child in government care after the Nov. 5 appointment, ABC News reports.
ICE says it acted because the uncle had no proof he was the boy’s legal guardian. That finding triggered the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act, which covers unaccompanied immigrant children.
“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 and place him in the care of the Office of Refugee Resettlement,” an agency spokesperson told the outlet.
The statement stops short of claiming the uncle harmed the boy or did anything improper. School board trustee Cody Petterson said the district’s files name the uncle as an approved caregiver.
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The government deported the boy’s father to Mexico last year, and an uncle took him in alongside his cousins. The child’s Temporary Protected Status ended earlier this year. Advocates say that deportation left no room to formalize custody.
“They did not give the father the opportunity or chance to actually put in place legal guardianship for the kid,” said Guerline Jozef, executive director of the nonprofit Haitian Bridge Alliance.
To Jozef, the move looks like “an excuse for [ICE] to remove the child and potentially put him in deportation proceedings.”
San Diego Unified, where the boy is a third grader at Fay Elementary School, laid out the uncle’s reasoning in a letter to DHS.
“The eight-year-old received a letter to meet with an ICE agent. His uncle, with whom he’s been living since the child’s father was deported more than a year ago, took him to meet the agent because he did not want to break the law,” the letter states.
The letter also defends his right to stay in school. “Children should not lose access to education simply because of circumstances unfolding around them,” district officials wrote.
For now, the Office of Refugee Resettlement still has the child, and his future in the country is uncertain.
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