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An 8-year-old Haitian boy is in federal custody after showing up for a scheduled immigration appointment earlier this week.
The incident was documented on video Wednesday by Karen Pohl, a volunteer immigration court observer with the group Detention Resistance. She said she’s never seen someone that young being detained before.
“It was just — I couldn't believe what I was seeing because I had never watched a child by himself get detained in that manner,” Pohl said.
The incident was upsetting to watch, she said.
“This is kind of like war,” Pohl, a retired Navy veteran, said. “And you just do what you got to do and deal with the emotion later because these people need us. There’s nobody else that’s witnessing how they’re being targeted and abused.”
The boy had been living with his uncle in City Heights after his father was deported in March 2025.
According to a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) spokesperson, the uncle did not have legal custody.
In accordance with the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act, the spokesperson said the boy was considered an unaccompanied minor.
“Out of an abundance of caution and to ensure the child’s safety, ICE determined it was best to remove the child from the household and place him in the care of the Office of Refugee Resettlement,” the spokesperson said.
Cody Petterson, a board trustee with the San Diego Unified School District (SDUSD), said the uncle was designated on school records as an authorized caregiver.
“I am not surprised ICE would say just about anything to justify their actions,” he said.
While he does not know the full details on who has legal custody of the boy, he said the uncle was someone the father entrusted his child to.
“This is a classic case of legalized lawlessness, where these agencies will attempt to use the law to actually further what is essentially a lawless activity,” Petterson said. “There is no question that the best place for this child was with the uncle that their father had designated as the guardian.”
In a three-page letter to Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin and Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr., SDUSD and other local officials are demanding the federal government release the boy back to his uncle’s custody so that he could continue his education with familiar “schools, teachers, classmates and support systems.”
“We demand the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) and the ORR change its policies and procedures affecting school-aged children who enter government custody or placement,” the letter said. “At a minimum, greater consideration should be given to the educational continuity of these students.”
Wister Gaetan, the co-founder of the Haitian Bridge Alliance, said the boy should be doing what boys his age are doing, going to school and playing with other kids. He said the boy should be returned to his family.
“This kid was in a setting that provided him with love, (brought) him to school and a path to education,” Gaetan said. “Sitting behind bars with the U.S. government is purely unacceptable, a violation of his due process rights and civil liberty.”
San Diego City Councilmember Sean Elo-Rivera, who also posted the information on Instagram on Thursday, is calling for the restoration of temporary protected status for Haitians.
“We're in this situation because of a decision to end a program that did not need to be ended, that should not have been ended,” he said.
The family is working on resolving the custody issue.
Meanwhile, the district said it will provide crisis counselors for students at Fay Elementary School, where the boy attended.
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