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An 8-year-old Haitian boy who went to a scheduled immigration check-in in downtown San Diego on Wednesday, Nov. 4, was taken into federal custody and separated from the uncle who had been raising him. Two days later, his school district said it still could not find out where he was being held.
The boy, a third grader at Fay Elementary School in the City Heights neighborhood, has not been publicly identified. He had been living with his uncle since his father was deported in March 2025. When a letter summoned the child to meet with immigration officers, his uncle brought him to the Edward J. Schwartz federal building as instructed.
Video recorded by Karen Pohl, a volunteer court observer with the group Detention Resistance, shows officers from ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations leading the boy away. Pohl, a retired Navy veteran, told KPBS she had never before watched a child that young detained on his own.
The government’s account
The Department of Homeland Security says the uncle could not prove he was the boy’s legal guardian. A spokesperson told NBC 7 that ICE confirmed the man was not part of either family unit the child had lived with.
Because of that, DHS says, the boy counts as an unaccompanied minor under the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act, a 2008 anti-trafficking law. ICE placed him with the Office of Refugee Resettlement, the agency within Health and Human Services that cares for migrant children who arrive without a parent or guardian. The spokesperson said ICE acted “out of an abundance of caution and to ensure the child’s safety.”
DHS also disputed parts of the account from local officials. It said the boy originally entered the country with a man who claimed to be his father, and that this man was removed to Mexico by Customs and Border Protection and was never in ICE custody. The department called claims that the boy had been placed in detention false.
Schools and city leaders push back
San Diego Unified officials reject the idea that the boy was unsupervised. Board trustee Cody Petterson told KPBS that school records listed the uncle as an authorized caregiver, and that the father had entrusted the child to him. Petterson accused federal agencies of using the letter of the law to justify what he considers lawless conduct.
City Councilmember Sean Elo-Rivera, who represents the area, made the case public on Thursday. In a social media post, he noted that the boy had already lost his parent last year and had now been taken from his guardian, his school and his friends.
On Friday, Nov. 6, the district joined other local officials in a three-page letter to Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. The letter demands that the boy be returned to his uncle so he can go back to his school and teachers. It also asks HHS and ORR to change how they handle school-age children in custody, giving more weight to keeping their education uninterrupted.
Wister Gaetan, co-founder of the Haitian Bridge Alliance, said the boy had been in a loving home that got him to school every day, and that holding him in federal custody violates his due process rights.
The district is sending crisis counselors to Fay Elementary, where classmates have been shaken by his disappearance.
The bigger picture
The case comes three months after Haitians in the U.S. lost Temporary Protected Status, which had shielded them from deportation since the 2010 earthquake. On June 25, 2026, the Supreme Court ruled 6–3 in Mullin v. Doe that the administration could end the program. DHS set the termination date as July 27, affecting roughly 350,000 Haitian and Syrian holders. Elo-Rivera has called for TPS to be restored, arguing the program never needed to end.
It also lands amid sharp changes at the Office of Refugee Resettlement. Children in its care stay until the agency approves a sponsor, usually a parent or relative. In fiscal 2024, the average stay was under a month. ORR’s own figures show it climbed to 117 days in fiscal 2025 and to nearly 190 days in fiscal 2026, peaking at 215 days in April.
The agency now shares information about children and their sponsors with ICE, and has added new vetting requirements. Members of Congress, including Sen. Richard Blumenthal, have raised concerns that children are being held for months even when the relatives they lived with before their arrest had already been vetted.
What comes next
The boy’s family is working to resolve the custody question, according to KPBS. His uncle can apply to ORR to become his sponsor, but given current processing times, that could take months.
Federal officials have not said publicly where the child is being held. For now, his seat at Fay Elementary sits empty while his school, his family and city leaders wait for an answer.
Sources
- Haitian boy, 8, detained during scheduled immigration appointment — KPBS, Nov. 6, 2026
- ICE takes 8-year-old Haitian boy into custody at San Diego check-in — NBC 7 San Diego
- An 8-year-old Haitian student was taken into ICE custody in San Diego — FOX 5/KUSI
- Supreme Court rules administration can end TPS for Haiti and Syria — Foster Global
- Federal judge acknowledges Supreme Court ruling on Haiti TPS — Fox News, Aug. 5, 2026
- USCCB comment on ORR sponsor vetting requirements — citing ORR length-of-care data
- Testimony of HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra, Nov. 2024 — FY2024 average stay
- Sen. Blumenthal letter to HHS Inspector General on ORR — Aug. 13, 2026
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