As ICE continues to terrorize the country, another child has been abducted and deported – this time from our own backyard: Hayward, California. Six-year-old Joseph Andrey Londono Rodriguez was taken by ICE and sent to Colombia after his mother was arrested in San Francisco on March 3rd. Joseph, who is deaf, was deported without critical assistive devices or any consideration of his young age, his disability, or that he would be torn out of his community and school, the California School for the Deaf in Fremont.
Lesly Rodriguez Gutierrez, Joseph’s mother, was lured into ICE offices and arrested under the false pretense that her children’s photos needed to be updated in their system. Once she arrived they arrested and deported her and her children so rapidly that, despite her pleas to obtain Joseph’s assistive devices, they were sent to Colombia without them.
This kind of terror needs to stop. Children around the country are being traumatized as ICE agents remove them from their neighborhoods, schools, and trusted communities. This is not how any human being should be treated, but it is definitely not how children should be treated. This is a time for us to show true solidarity, to stand with each other, and to get organized to protect one another from the danger ICE brings to our streets.
