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President Donald Trump’s administration sent a government plane to Cuba to return a 10-year-old from Utah, according to the Associated Press. The move came as federal and state authorities pursued a parental-kidnapping case tied to the child’s gender identity and an ongoing custody dispute. Prosecutors said the 10-year-old was returned to the child’s biological mother, and the people brought back were expected to face charges in Utah.
The custody fight centers on the allegations that Rose Inessa-Ethington, a transgender woman, took the child to Cuba without the permission of the biological mother. Federal and state authorities sought the child’s return after a family member expressed concern that Inessa-Ethington went to Havana to obtain gender transition surgery for the child. The AP said the case involved a complicated dispute over custody and the child’s transition-related care.
Rose Inessa-Ethington and her partner, Blue Inessa-Ethington, were arrested and charged in the U.S. with international parental kidnapping, the AP reported. Investigators said the couple traveled with the child to Canada in late March for what was described as a camping trip, then turned off their phones after telling the older child’s mother that they had arrived in Canada. The criminal complaint described their travel path as flying from Vancouver to Mexico and then to Cuba on April 1.
The charges, as described by the AP, did not say whether the couple planned to obtain gender-affirming surgery in Cuba or how such a procedure would have been arranged, noting that the surgery was not legal for children in Cuba. The AP reported that the FBI said Blue Inessa-Ethington withdrew $10,000 from her checking account before leaving, and that agents also found a note at their home instructing a therapist in Washington, D.C., to receive $10,000 and to send instructions on gender-affirming medical care for children; the note did not mention Cuba.
Law enforcement activity began after the child was not returned as scheduled, according to court records cited by the AP. The AP said search efforts began on April 3 when the child was not brought back to the mother in Utah as ordered. The child’s biological mother filed a missing-person report with police in Logan, Utah, a town about 70 miles (115 kilometers) north of Salt Lake City.
Logan City Police Chief Jeff Simmons told the AP that investigators initially focused on custodial interference allegations and later learned about concerns related to gender-affirming surgery. Logan police spokesperson Sgt. Brandon Bevan said the gender-related concerns were raised by one family member and declined to identify the person, saying investigators had “no actual physical evidence” at the time.
A Utah state judge ordered the return of the 10-year-old to the biological mother on April 13, the AP reported. Three days later, a federal magistrate judge issued an arrest warrant for the Inessa-Ethingtons, and on the same day Cuban law enforcement located the group. The AP said the couple and child were deported to the U.S. aboard the government plane Monday and arraigned in federal court in Richmond, Virginia, with the 10-year-old returned to the biological mother; First Assistant U.S. Attorney Melissa Holyoak indicated the return in Utah, and the AP reported that representatives declined to say what happened to the 3-year-old child who had been with the group.
The dispute between the parents, according to the AP, did not appear to be new. The AP said an online fundraiser created years earlier by Blue Inessa-Ethington, titled “Help a Trans Mother Keep Custody of Her Child,” raised $9,766 and described a change in Rose Inessa-Ethington’s ex relocating several counties away, which the fundraiser’s page said affected the parent-time schedule. The AP also cited an April 16 affidavit from FBI Special Agent Jennifer Waterfield stating that family members said the child was assigned male at birth but identifies as a girl, and that family members attributed that identification to what they believed was “manipulation” by Rose Inessa-Ethington.
The AP also placed the case in the broader context of shifting U.S. policy and legal challenges over gender-affirming care for minors. The AP said the Trump administration moved in December to cut off gender-affirming care for minors, prompting multiple states to sue, and described ongoing clashes between an administration that says transgender health care can be harmful to children and advocates who say it is medically necessary. The AP reported that gender-affirming surgery is rare among U.S. children and that guidance from major medical organizations calls for caution and case-by-case decisions, and it said fewer than 1 in 1,000 U.S. adolescents receive gender-affirming medications such as hormones or puberty blockers.
In Cuba, the AP said gender-affirming surgeries for minors are banned and that such procedures are performed for adults through the public health system under strict supervision. It said Cuban medical commission authorization after a comprehensive review of a patient’s file is required, and that the process can take years because it calls for a range of medical and psychological evaluations. The AP reported that the use of a Department of Justice plane in the parental kidnapping investigation came after the Trump administration sought to block access to gender-affirming care for minors and pressured health care providers over the issue.