State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond and other advocates are condemning the detention and deportation of a 6-year-old Deaf student with disabilities and his mother.

The student, Joseph Andrey Londono Rodriguez, who attends the California School for the Deaf in Fremont, was detained and deported without his hearing aids and without due process, according to Thurmond.

The boy was home sick from school and had to accompany his mother, Lesly Rodriguez Gutierrez, to her immigration check-in at a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement office.

“I am deeply disturbed that a 6-year-old Deaf student from our State Special Schools, who was home sick from school, was detained and deported without access to critical medical devices that support him to hear. This innocent child is being deprived of both education and basic, essential communication,” said Thurmond, in a news release. “I am calling on the federal government to return our student to his school community now. These inhumane and illegal attacks on our families must end.”

In a March 6 news conference, Thurmond called on Sen. Markwayne Mullin, who President Donald Trump has tapped to be the incoming Homeland Security Secretary, to return Joseph to his school community in California.

As more details became available, the CDE issued another news release March 10 alleging that ICE officials detained and deported the family under false pretenses.

According to Nikolas De Bremaeker, an attorney for the boy’s mother: “Ahead of the check-in, Ms. Rodriguez Gutierrez was told she needed to bring her two children to renew the photos ICE has on record for them. At the routine check-in, ICE at no point explained to Ms. Rodriguez Gutierrez what was happening to them. ICE agents took their photos and fingerprints, tried to force her to sign a document without explanation, and then pushed the family into a vehicle to be put on a flight to a faraway detention facility, all within minutes.”

According to her lawyer, Rodriguez Gutierrez and her two children are asylum seekers from Colombia who came to the United States fleeing domestic violence. While her child was enrolled at the California School for the Deaf in Fremont, Rodriguez Gutierrez resided in Hayward and worked as a cleaner and child care worker. She has no criminal record. According to published reports, the Department of Homeland Security has said that Rodriguez Gutierrez entered the country illegally in 2022 and was given a final order of removal by an immigration judge on Nov. 25, 2024.

“We must make this right and return this family to their school community, and we must end the vile cruelty that this administration has unleashed on our neighbors simply because of where they were born, the language they speak, or the color of their skin,” said Thurmond, in the March 10 news release. “I am actively working with members of Congress to pursue every available avenue to return Joseph to his school community here in California, where he can once again learn in American Sign Language, the only language her son knows.”

In a news release, De Bremaeker said that since arriving in Colombia, Joseph’s mother has noticed that the boy’s demeanor has changed.

“He has all but stopped eating … she has never seen him like this before. He is heartbroken, has fully withdrawn, and seems lost,” he said. “He misses his friends, and nobody other than mom or brother knows any sign language. No friends, no teachers, no community members whom he can relate to. He feels cut off from the world.”