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U.S. Rep. Eric Swalwell slammed the U.S. Department of Homeland Security during a press conference at Hayward City Hall on Monday, accusing immigration authorities of preventing a family that included a deaf 6-year-old from seeing their lawyer before being deported to Colombia.
Swalwell (D-Livermore) spoke along with Nikolas De Bremaeker, the lawyer representing a Hayward mother and her two sons who were detained last week during an immigration check-in in San Francisco.
The family includes 28-year-old Lesly Rodriguez Gutierrez, her 6-year-old son Joseph and another 4-year-old son. Rodriguez Gutierrez has applied for asylum.
Bremaeker accused U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement of intentionally shuffling the family around so they could not access legal counsel and intentionally preventing the boy from receiving his hearing aid after being detained.
“Their family member was in a car right outside and would have been able to grab the assisted devices and bring them to her,” he said. “In a move that shocks the conscience and violates several laws, as well as our Constitution, ICE denied Joseph the assisting devices he needs to live.”
He went on to allege that ICE repeatedly lied about where the family was being held and called for a congressional investigation into what he said were numerous violations of the legal process and to compel the DHS to return the family to their home in Hayward.
“In a fundamental violation of the family’s due process rights, ICE misled our team at every turn regarding the location of the family and stopped Ms. Rodriguez Gutierrez from having access to counsel, which she’s entitled to under our Constitution,” Bremaeker said.
He said that obfuscation prevented his legal team from filing emergency applications to stay in the country based on humanitarian grounds, which he said would be filed now that the family was located in Colombia.
When asked in an email, an ICE spokesperson did not respond to whether the child was deported without his hearing aid or that the family was deliberately moved around to cause confusion, but said an immigration judge issued a deportation order for Rodriguez Gutierrez in June 2024.
“The family was transported to San Francisco International Airport March 5 and flown to Alexandria, Louisiana, and were removed to their home country of Colombia,” an agency spokesperson said.
The spokesperson said Rodriguez Gutierrez was detained “after failing to comply with multiple directives to report.”
But Swalwell, who is running for governor and organized Monday’s press conference, said Rodriguez Gutierrez was checking in for a standard meeting with her case workers as required as she had in the past.
“They promised they would deport criminals,” Swalwell said. “Now they’re deporting kids with disabilities.”
Swalwell said his staff flew to Colombia to deliver the boy’s hearing aid and confirm the family’s wellbeing while last minute legal appeals are prepared.
Rodriguez Gutierrez originally left the country because she was a victim of domestic violence, according to Swalwell, who said he did not want to elaborate for her safety.
Her son Joseph is a student at the California School for the Deaf in Fremont and was with his mom for her appointment because he was home sick, according to state Superintendent Tony Thurmond, who said last week the school’s special services made it necessary for the boy to stay in the country.
“This innocent child is being deprived of both education and basic, essential communication,” Thurmond said in a statement last week. “This unnecessary cruelty must end. The federal administration gave inaccurate information to the family’s attorney, preventing them from being located during detention or from accessing due process.”
Monday’s press conference was also attended by Alameda County Supervisor Elisa Marquez and Hayward City Councilmembers Francisco Zermeño and George Syrop, all of whom denounced the family’s deportation and called for congressional action to ensure their safe return.
Marquez called the situation “unacceptable,” while Syrop denounced the tactics as “kidnapping” and “domestic terrorism.”
— Story by Thomas Hughes, Bay City News
