‘Depraved attempt to smear our officers’: ICE denies allegations 8-year-old Haitian boy was separated from family and placed in federal custody

Detailed summary

ICE has claimed that it placed the boy in the care of the Office of Refugee Resettlement to ensure his “safety.”

The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has denied allegations that it took a third grader into custody to be placed in detention. ICE’s statement comes after local advocates and school officials alleged that an eight-year-old Haitian boy who previously lost Temporary Protected Status was taken into federal custody after an immigration check-in. The third grader attends Fay Elementary School in San Diego.

The boy was placed into government custody alone after attending an Immigration and Customs Enforcement appointment with his uncle, his school district and an advocacy group said. ICE has now said that the allegations and the narrative are “false,” adding that it is a “depraved attempt to smear our ICE law enforcement officers and undermine the work of President Trump and Secretary Mullin to protect children.”

The San Diego Unified School District said in a letter to DHS that the boy 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,” added the letter.

According to advocates and school officials, the boy had been living with his uncle and cousins after his father was deported to Mexico in 2025.

"They did not give the father the opportunity or chance to actually put in place legal guardianship for the kid," said Guerline Jozef, the executive director of the nonprofit Haitian Bridge Alliance.

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Cody Petterson, a board trustee with the SDUSD, told ABC News the uncle was designated as an authorized caregiver on school records.

However, a spokesperson for ICE told the outlet that since the uncle failed to establish legal guardianship, agents treated the boy as an unaccompanied child under the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act.

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