Photo: CBS 12
Immigrant advocates in Palm Beach County say a child was left alone in this country after his father was deported.
"This is one of the very many cases that we are going to see happen."
Mariana Blanco with the Guatemalan-Maya Center in Lake Worth Beach says she received word from a middle school that the 12-year-old boy who attended that school had been left with no legal guardian in the U.S.
"If there is no legal guardian to take care of that child, that child is now left in the most vulnerable state. They're able to fall in the hands of someone who might ultimately want to cause harm to them."
Her nonprofit was able to work with the Guatemalan Consulate to get the boy a special travel pass so he could fly to the country and be with his father.
An immigration attorney tells CBS 12 News that if ICE detains a parent for deportation, agents will ask who can take the child.
"ICE will speak to the person that they're detaining and say 'Who's your closest kin? Who's the nearest relative? Who do we reach out to to come pick up this kid? 'cause you can't just leave this kid on the side of the street or something."
It's not known whether that happened in this case, but attorney Richard Hujber has a message for parents in this country illegally.
"You've got to be ready to be able to deal with the reality, which is these ICE agents are not the babysitters at the border."
This may not be a one-off as Blanco says she is "dealing with other cases that are very similar."
Blanco also claims that the child's father was not a so-called "criminal illegal immigrant," meaning he was not wanted for any crimes other than being in the country illegally. But that has not been substantiated.