A North Texas foster couple is potentially facing kidnapping charges after taking care of a trafficked boy.
In 2020, the boy was discovered by police in Garland in the backseat of a parked car along with 28-year-old Royme Enrique Gonzalez.
Gonzalez was “slurring his speech and was unable to stay awake long enough to speak with officers” and was found with a fraudulent immigration card, according to an arrest warrant obtained by CBS.
Gonzalez had vomited on the boy, who was completely malnourished, had soiled his clothing, and was showing signs of physical and sexual abuse. Gonzalez brought the boy into the United States, falsely claiming to be the child’s father, which was ultimately proven false by DNA testing.
Gonzalez was charged with endangering a child and later deported back to Guatemala.
Child Protective Services (CPS) contacted Dallas foster couple Michelle and Ben Doerr to take in the boy, whom they named Nelson.
“He’s blossomed into an eight-year-old boy who likes to do eight-year-old things,” Michelle Doerr told CBS. “He can speak really well. He’s so smart.”
Documents obtained by CBS show that Nelson was a human trafficking victim from Guatemala. Nelson’s mother was a prostitute who gave Nelson to the trafficker as a newborn to “put him to work.”
After being put in the care of the Doerrs, Nelson was professionally diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and generalized anxiety disorder due to the abuse he endured, according to a Facebook page titled ‘SavingNelson.’
Nelson acted out being beaten by Gonzalez to therapists and reportedly had years of night terrors.
In April 2022, two years after the Doerrs took in Nelson, Judge Andrea Martin in the 304th District Court of Dallas County signed an order to give custody of Nelson back to his trafficker in Guatemala.
In August 2024, Nelson and the Doerrs were surrounded by undercover officers in a parking garage in Plano. Nelson was taken from them and put on a plane to Guatemala to return to Gonzalez.
“Two unmarked cars pulled up on us, and officers got out of the car,” said Michelle. “It was truly our worst nightmare.”
The Doerrs told CBS that throughout the last two years, state authorities made multiple attempts to take Nelson out of their care and back into the state’s custody.
Despite Nelson being granted a T-Visa by the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services after the department determined he was a victim of a “severe form of trafficking,” Nelson was still removed from their care.
Nelson had an asylum application pending at the time he was sent back.
The Doerrs, afraid that Nelson would return to Gonzalez, admitted to avoiding texts from state authorities over the years and hiding from law enforcement by staying with friends and away from their home. The couple now fears potential kidnapping charges against them.
“It became a moral obligation to save him,” said Michelle. “…All I care about right now is that Nelson is safe.”
“It shocks the conscience that the State of Texas through the Department of Family Services and CPS is in the regular practice of repatriating non-citizen children without first considering their immigration status or pending immigration applications,” Javier Rivera, Nelson’s attorney, told CBS.
“This process of de facto deportation violates numerous U.S. statutes and international treaties for treatment of asylum seekers.”
A petition to Governor Greg Abbott, Attorney General Ken Paxton, and Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett was created to spread awareness and ask that Nelson be taken away from Gonzalez.
“Help us in [saving Nelson],” reads the Saving Nelson Facebook page.
“This little boy has been through so much and deserves a home where he is safe and loved.”