A five-year-old U.S. citizen found chained, starving and beaten in Mexico City last month may soon be reunited with his father in Escondido.

Mexican police rescued the boy, Anthony Castro, on June 27 from a relative’s home in the Gabriel Hernández neighborhood and took him to a local hospital for treatment, according to a statement released by the local prosecutor’s office.

His father’s sister and her husband were arrested by Mexican police with charges of illegal deprivation of liberty for the purpose of causing harm. They were taken into custody and may be sentenced up to 60 years in prison if convicted.

Anthony Castro’s legs were chained when Mexican police found him in his relatives home last month. (Courtesy the Attorney General’s office in Mexico City)


The boy’s father, Pascual Castro, is not a U.S. citizen. He went to the Vista office of Republican U.S. Rep. Darrell Issa for help, even though he was afraid no one would help him. Issa met with him.

“Darrell turns to the father, puts his arm out and says, ‘I’m not worried if you are a citizen or not. A little boy — your son — is in a hospital in Mexico. Let’s get him home,’” a district office staff member said, according to Issa spokesman Calvin Moore.

Issa got on the phone with the State Department and pushed Anthony’s case to the highest priority.

“We will do everything in our power to get him out of this abusive situation and into a safe and stable environment where he can get the help he so desperately needs. I’m grateful we were able to step in, just in the nick of time before the holiday,” Issa said in an emailed statement. “This is absolutely heartbreaking.”


The suspects were arrested by Mexican police with charges of illegal deprivation of liberty for the purpose of causing harm. (Courtesy the Attorney General’s office in Mexico City)

Marcela Celorio, the Mexican Consul General in San Diego, said that what happens to the boy will ultimately depend on the special prosecutor for the rights of children in Mexico City. Anthony might be returned to family in the U.S. or be placed in foster care in Mexico City.

Celorio said that Anthony will most likely be placed in foster care at least temporarily while he waits for the legal process to unfold.

“We have to take into consideration that we’re talking about human life and, even more, a kid, a child,” Celorio said. “We have to be very responsible with what we do.”


She said that the U.S. and Mexico have treaties for how to handle these kinds of international custody cases, and a similar process would happen for a Mexican child found in the U.S.

She did not know how long the process would take. Some cases take less than a month, she said, while others take years.

The Mexican Consulate got involved because Anthony’s father is from Mexico. Celorio said Pascual Castro told her office that he was “regularizing” his immigration status but could not travel down to Mexico City to see his son during that process.

Castro did not respond to requests for comment from The San Diego Union-Tribune. Neither did Dawn Sanderson, 34, the boy’s mother.


Castro is an unauthorized immigrant and Dawn Sanderson is a U.S. citizen, said Anthony’s great-grandmother, Virginia Sanderson, 84, of Escondido.

The two were previously married for a short time but are no longer together, according to Virginia Sanderson, who recalled the baby being born at Palomar Medical Center in Escondido. Castro won custody of Anthony after the couple’s separation, she said.

She said her granddaughter, who is on probation, has turned her life around and would now be able to take care of her son.

“He’s a U.S. citizen,” Sanderson said. “He needs to be brought back here. He needs to be reunited with his mother. We’re doing all we can.”


The San Diego Union-Tribune was not able to retrieve court records of the criminal history or the custody case before courts closed on Thursday.

Virginia Sanderson said she did not know that Castro left Anthony with relatives in Mexico City. She cares for her granddaughter’s other children.

“I’m just appalled,” Virginia Sanderson said over the phone. “I never thought that the child was in any danger.”

She said she found out about her great-grandson’s situation when she saw a story about it on the news.


“I still didn’t believe it until a couple more days when reporters started coming, and they showed me pictures they had not showed on the news,” Sanderson said. “It was terrible, terrible, terrible.”

“The one that shows him like a little skeleton, like one of those children in a foreign country starving to death, that’s what he looks like,” she said of the picture that disturbed her the most.

“I’m not angry,” she added. “I’m terribly, terribly grieved.”

She doesn’t trust Castro, she said, and she’s worried about Anthony being placed with him again.


Castro told El Universal by telephone that he left his son with his sister and her husband while he came to work in the U.S. They’d sent him videos of his son in February and March, and he thought everything was fine.

He’d previously left Anthony with his grandparents, he said, but he thought the schools were better where the boy’s aunt lived, so he moved Anthony in with them instead.

“I never thought they would treat him like this. It hurts me a lot, my poor son,” he said in Spanish. “I feel terrible about this.”


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kate.morrissey@sduniontribune.com, @bgirledukate on Twitter