An 8-year-old Haitian boy walked into a federal building in San Diego on Nov. 4 for an immigration appointment with his uncle. He did not walk out. Six days later, his relatives cannot find him, according to Rep. Juan Vargas, a California Democrat who called the case “despicable.”
The boy is a third grader at Fay Elementary in City Heights. His father was deported in March 2025, and his uncle has cared for him since. The family had Temporary Protected Status from Haiti, which ended in the summer of 2025. Wister Gaetan, co-founder of the Haitian Bridge Alliance, said: “Nobody should accept that this minor, who should be in school, is a threat to our society.”
Federal officers took him into custody at the Edward J. Schwartz federal building. Court observer Karen Pohl recorded it on video. “I had never watched a child by himself get detained in that manner,” she said.
The Department of Homeland Security says it acted under the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act. Because the uncle could not establish legal guardianship, the agency says, the boy counts as an unaccompanied minor. In a statement, ICE said he “was removed and placed in the care of the Office of Refugee Resettlement.” DHS said it acted “out of an abundance of caution and to ensure the child’s safety.”
Local officials dispute that reading. San Diego Unified school board trustee Cody Petterson said the uncle was a designated school caregiver and that the boy’s father had entrusted his son to him. City Councilmember Sean Elo-Rivera, Superintendent Fabiola Bagula and the teachers’ unions sent DHS and the Department of Health and Human Services a three-page letter demanding the boy be returned to “schools, teachers, classmates and support systems.” They also want placement rules changed so children can stay near their families.
The Office of Refugee Resettlement has not said where he is, according to 10News in San Diego.
Haitian families have absorbed blow after blow this year. The end of Temporary Protected Status cost about 350,000 Haitians their legal right to work, and now a child has been taken from the relative who raised him.
The government’s own justification shows the problem. A law written to protect trafficked children is being used to take an 8-year-old from the uncle who raised him, in a school district that vouches for that uncle. Someone at DHS and HHS knows where this child is. They should tell his family today, and return him to the only home he has.
Vargas says he is working to reunite the boy with his relatives.
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