State Superintendent Tony Thurmond, Others Call on Trump Administration to Release and Return Six-Year-Old Deaf Child Detained and Deported by ICE

SACRAMENTO—Earlier this week, a six-year-old Deaf student with disabilities who attends the California School for the Deaf, Fremont (CSDF), was detained and deported without critical assistive devices and without due process.

The student, Joseph Andrey Londono Rodriguez, 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. Gutierrez is an asylum seeker from Colombia fleeing domestic violence. According to her attorney, Nikolas De Bremaeker, Gutierrez has no criminal record in any country.

Today, State Superintendent Tony Thurmond and other advocates condemned the detention and deportation of the family without due process and without Joseph’s assistive devices. Superintendent Thurmond called on Senator Markwayne Mullin, who President Donald Trump has tapped to be the incoming Homeland Security Secretary, to return Joseph to his school community in California.

“I am deeply disturbed that a six-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 Superintendent Thurmond. “This unnecessary cruelty must end. The federal administration gave inaccurate information to the family’s attorney, preventing them from being located during detention or from accessing due process."

“No child should be ripped from their home community and hidden in a detention center,” Superintendent Thurmond continued, “especially not a Deaf child who is being deprived of the ability to communicate and understand what is happening to him. 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.”

“At CSDF, our mission is to ensure that every deaf student had access to a safe, supportive and fully accessible education,” said Amy Novotny, superintendent of the California School for the Deaf in Fremont. “We are deeply saddened by the circumstances affecting one of our students and their family. Our school community remains committed to supporting all students and advocating for their right to learn, experience and thrive.”

At today’s press conference, Superintendent Thurmond was joined by:

• Nikolas De Bremaeker, attorney for the student’s family, of Centro Legal de la Raza/ACILEP
• Jeannette Zanipatin, Director of Policy, Advocacy and Litigation at the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights (CHIRLA)

The press conference can be viewed on the CDE Facebook page .

# # # #

Tony Thurmond — State Superintendent of Public Instruction
Communications Division, Room 5602, 916-319-0818, Fax 916-319-0100