The San Diego Democratic congressional delegation is demanding answers Tuesday after a Haitian child was taken into federal custody last week.
Reps. Juan Vargas, Sara Jacobs, Scott Peters and Mike Levin, as well as Sens. Alex Padilla and Adam Schiff, wrote a letter to DHS Secretary Mullin and Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., asking what steps the administration is taking to reunite him with his family.
The case has gained national attention.
“Video footage appears to show the use of restraints on a child who seemed to pose no threat to those around him, raising serious questions about the handling of this incident,” the letter reads. “We express concerns about the basis for this action and the harm it may cause a young child who appeared for his required hearing.”
The 8-year-old was taken into custody after a scheduled immigration check-in. According to several sources, he was staying with his uncle after his father was deported to Mexico in March 2025.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials, however, say there were issues with legal custody. ICE took the boy away under the William Wilberforce Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2008, a law aimed at preventing human trafficking.
The scene of the child being escorted out of the courtroom with his hands in front of him deeply concerned Vargas. He represents the district where the boy and his family live.
“Did they, in fact, arrest the child and put — looks like when he walks away, he has some sort of restraints on him,” Vargas said. “I'm not sure that that is what happened from the pictures that I've seen. It looks like that's what they did, and the way he was walking. I want to know about that.”
ICE has disputed that it took the child away to put him in a detention center, but the congressional delegation wants to know where the third-grader is being held and if his family has been notified.
KPBS has confirmed that the family’s attorney knows where the child is being held. But the family is not making that public at this time because they fear the attention will make it more difficult for them to get the little boy released.
Vargas said the incident has also caused distress for the child’s classmates in City Heights, where there is a large immigrant population.
“They're traumatized. They really are,” he said. “They're just traumatized with what has happened, so we need some information to be able to share with these kids to make sure that they don't feel like they're next.”
San Diego Unified School District said it has sent crisis counselors to Fay Elementary, where the boy attended third grade. The district has also sent a letter to DHS and HHS saying cases like these affect the emotional well-being of young students through no fault of their own.
“When families are suddenly separated, displaced, detained, or removed from their communities, schools are often left to respond to the resulting trauma and educational disruption,” SDUSD said in the letter. “These circumstances place children at significant risk of academic regression, mental health challenges, and long-term instability.”
San Diego Councilmember Sean Elo-Rivera said that, as a father, this case is deeply troubling for him.
“It hurts my heart. It makes me angry,” he said. “I genuinely, genuinely believe that most people in San Diego and in this country do not want this to be happening in this way.”
Elo-Rivera, whose district includes Fay Elementary, said he hasn’t gotten any answers either. The fact that this story has garnered national attention, he said, is a good thing.
“It makes it less likely that this little boy … will fall through the cracks,” Elo-Rivera said. “And two, it is a flashing red light to all of us about the inhumanity of how immigration enforcement is being conducted right now.”
With Stephen Miller named as President Donald Trump’s new chief of staff, Vargas doesn’t think things will get better anytime soon. Miller is the chief architect of the administration's mass deportation policy.
“This guy is the devil. He is absolutely horrible,” Vargas said. “Even his own side says that … the Republicans say, ‘I can't believe that they're promoting this guy.’”
