NOVEMBER 8, 2026

Contact: info@haitianbridge.org, media@haitianbridge.org 

SAN DIEGO, CA — Haitian Bridge Alliance (HBA) strongly condemns the Trump administration’s decision to take an eight-year-old Haitian boy into federal custody during a routine immigration check-in, separating him from his loved ones, school, and community. The third-grade student at Fay Elementary School had been living with his loved ones following his father’s deportation by the U.S government back in 2025 forcing him to live with loved ones in the absence of his father. Despite the fact that he followed all the rules and took the  8-year-old uncle  to appear for a scheduled immigration appointment that was sent to him, the child was taken into custody and subsequently transferred to the Office of Refugee Resettlement leaving his cousins in tears.

It is important to note that when parents are taken into custody by ICE, they are not provided an opportunity to return home to see their children or to be able to transfer guardianship, ICE just incarcerated then deported without taking into account the wellbeing of the children left behind.

This is what we call “Orphans by deportation”

San Diego Unified School District officials have raised serious concerns about the devastating impact of immigration enforcement on children, including psychological trauma, educational disruption, and fear within school communities. Crisis counselors have been deployed to support students affected by their classmate’s disappearance.

Guerline Jozef, Executive Director of Haitian Bridge Alliance, issued the following statement:

“This is not child protection. This is state-inflicted trauma disguised as immigration enforcement. An eight-year-old child should be sitting in a classroom, learning, playing, and dreaming about his future, not being taken away and retraumatized by armed federal agents. His father has already been taken from him and deported,  now this administration has stripped him of the stability, family, and community every child deserves.

“When a government’s immigration policies leave children traumatized and classmates afraid, we have crossed an extremely dangerous moral line. Black immigrant children are not invisible or disposable . We refuse to normalize this cruelty. No child should become a casualty of an immigration system that has abandoned compassion and humanity.”

The Haitian Bridge Alliance has been sounding the alarm on the terror that children and parents have been going through  and will continue to stand alongside them, providing support and advocating tirelessly until the 8-year old child is safely reunited with his loved ones here in San Diego. HBA calls on federal authorities to facilitate his immediate reunification with his loved ones, ensure his safety and well-being, and provide full transparency regarding his circumstances. HBA further urges Congress to investigate this incident and calls on the Trump administration to restore Temporary Protected Status protections for Haitian families as Haiti continues to grapple with extreme conditions.

ABOUT HAITIAN BRIDGE ALLIANCE

Haitian Bridge Alliance (HBA), also known as “The Bridge”, is a grassroots community organization that advocates for fair and humane immigration policies, foreign policy, and provides migrants and immigrants with humanitarian, legal, and social services, with a particular focus on Black migrants, the Haitian community, women and girls, LGBTQIA+ individuals, and survivors of torture and other human rights abuses. HBA also seeks to elevate the issues unique to Black migrants and builds solidarity and collective movement toward policy change. Anpil men chay pa lou (“Many hands make the load light”). Follow us on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook: @haitianbridge