.png?trim=0,0,0,0&width=1200&height=800&crop=1200:800 "An autistic 15-year-old went missing in Houston. Now he’s in federal immigration custody – UK Times")
A Houston mother says she’s been separated from her 15-year-old autistic son after he went missing last weekend and was later detained by the Office of Refugee Resettlement.
Emmanuel Gonzalez Garcia was reported missing by his mother, Maria, on October 4. He was found the next day, when Houston Police Department officers responded to a welfare check with the local fire department, a police spokesperson told The Independent.
When officers responded to the welfare check, they found a 15-year-old boy — later revealed to be Emmanuel — who couldn’t give them any contact information for his family and told them he was “homeless,” and “from another country,” the police department spokesperson said. After “exhausting all options,” officers contacted Immigration and Customs Enforcement for help, the spokesperson said.
An ICE spokesperson said the agency worked with local police, but noted Emmanuel was never in ICE custody.
“ICE worked with HPD to see if they could identify the minor or any of the minor’s family members living in the U.S,” an ICE spokesperson said in a statement to local outlet KVUE. “When no family could be identified, ICE helped HPD place the minor with the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Refugee Resettlement.”
Emmanuel is now in an Office of Refugee Resettlement center where “they detain unaccompanied youth,” even though he is not unaccompanied, according to Cesar Espinosa, executive director of the immigrant rights group FIEL Houston. The organization has been advocating for Maria, who was notified that her son was at the center on Friday, Espinosa told The Independent.
She had been searching for him for days, and FIEL Houston had been distributing missing person flyers while he was detained, the organization said.
The Independent has contacted ICE and the Department of Health and Human Service’s Administration for Children and Families, which houses the Office of Refugee Resettlement, for comment.
Maria and her son are from Nicaragua and undocumented, Espinosa said. Because Maria isn’t a U.S. citizen, she can’t currently regain custody of Emmanuel and has been told she’ll need a sponsor to claim him, a process which could take “weeks, if not months,” according to Espinosa.
Maria was able to FaceTime Emmanuel for 30 minutes on Friday after proving her identity, according to Espinosa.
“There are no visible signs of trauma or anything like that, but his mom, who knows him best, says that he usually is a little bit more talkative than he is,” Espinosa said. “She thinks that he’s afraid or unsure what’s happening.”
It was “surprising” to hear Emmanuel told police he was homeless and from another country, because he “doesn’t really know those kinds of things,” Espinosa said. Emmanuel is “totally nonverbal” in English and can only say his name, birthdate and the country he’s from, according to Espinosa. He’s also “sometimes nonverbal” in Spanish, Espinosa noted.
Espinosa says Maria still doesn’t know Emmanuel’s exact location or if has access to any assistance or therapy. She asked Emmanuel on the call, Espinosa said, but he wasn’t able to tell her.
“Right now, we are focused on getting Emmanuel and his mom the correct legal help that they need to try to reunite them,” Espinosa said. “That’s our priority.”
FIEL Houston will be demanding answers about how this happened at Tuesday’s City Hall meeting, Espinosa said. He also wants to know why Houston police officers couldn’t identify Emmanuel after he was reported missing just a day prior.
“One of the other notions that we want to push back on is, the [Houston Police Department] says that they spent about four hours with Emmanuel,” Espinosa said. “How could they not radio their Missing Persons Unit, who had the report?”
