At a Glance
- A 13-year-old Pomona boy faces losing his second parent-figure after ICE detained his foster dad.
- The teen’s foster mom, his biological aunt, was killed by a drunk driver three years ago.
- Relatives vow to keep him out of the foster-care system while lawyers fight the detention.
Why it matters: A single immigration arrest could send a U.S.-raised child back into state custody after he already lost one caregiver to tragedy.
A 13-year-old boy in Pomona is confronting the possibility of entering foster care for the second time in three years after federal immigration agents detained the only guardian he has left, according to relatives who spoke with News Of Losangeles.
The teenager, whose name the family withheld to protect his privacy, had been raised since infancy by his aunt Yesenia Gomez. She was finalizing his formal adoption when a drunk driver struck and killed her in 2021, relatives said.
From Aunt to Foster Mom
Yesenia’s husband, Jose de Jesus Olaez, immediately stepped in as the boy’s foster father, allowing the child to remain in the only home he had ever known.
Family members said Olaez, an undocumented immigrant who has lived in the United States for 24 years without a criminal record, supported the teen by working landscaping jobs across the Inland Empire.
That stability shattered Monday morning when Olaez was surrounded by federal agents on his way to work, cellphone footage provided by the Inland Coalition for Immigrant Justice shows.
The Stop That Changed Everything
Olaez recounted the moment in a brief call from a detention facility:
“I was in the work truck when I felt like I had been hit (by a car), so I stopped to see if I had been in an accident. Then I saw that it was (federal agents), and another car had stopped in front of me,” he said in Spanish.
Agents took him into custody, leaving the 13-year-old in the care of extended family who now fear the state will remove the boy from the household.
Relatives Scramble to Keep Family Together
Jasmine Olaez-Gomez, the teen’s aunt, said the boy asks the same question every day: “‘How’s my dad doing?’ That’s the main question he asks me.”
Relatives have been meeting with a social worker to explore legal options that would let the teenager stay with family rather than re-entering the foster system.
“We don’t want him to go back into the system. We want him to stay here with us,” Olaez-Gomez told News Of Losangeles.
Timeline of Loss
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| ~2011 | Yesenia Gomez begins raising her biological nephew as her own child |
| 2021 | Gomez killed by drunk driver while adoption paperwork still pending |
| Post-2021 | Husband Jose de Jesus Olaez becomes foster father to keep boy in home |
| This week | Olaez detained by ICE on way to landscaping job; boy faces uncertainty |
The family said they have not been told where Olaez is being held or when he might see an immigration judge. Meanwhile, the 13-year-old attends school under the cloud of possibly being moved to a state-run foster placement.
Key Takeaways
- The teenager already lost one parent-figure to a fatal crash; ICE detention of his foster dad threatens to orphan him again within the same household.
- Relatives argue that removing Olaez ignores his clean record and decades-long U.S. residence that allowed him to raise a U.S.-citizen child.
- Advocates say the case highlights risks faced by mixed-status families where children who are citizens or legal residents depend on undocumented caregivers.
