*Event date: 2025-12-02*
Colombia has expelled 26 members of the ultra-Orthodox Jewish sect Lev Tahor to the United States after determining that the rights of some of the children in the group were at risk, placing an internationally controversial religious movement under fresh scrutiny.
AP says authorities detained 17 children and nine adults on Nov. 22 after a raid on a hotel in Yarumal, a city in northwestern Colombia. Officials later transferred the group to Medellín, where the children received support from the National Institute for Family Welfare before they were flown to New York and handed over to US officials.
The case is striking because it involves both child-protection concerns and the movement’s long record of legal troubles in several countries. AP reports that five children had American and Guatemalan passports and that Interpol yellow notices had been issued for them. Those notices are used for people reported missing or believed to be victims of abduction.
Colombian authorities said the group arrived in October and was looking for a rural property where it could establish a compound. That detail appears to have been important: officials say a local tip prompted the inquiry, and the case escalated before the sect had time to entrench itself further.
Lev Tahor has faced allegations elsewhere of kidnapping and forced marriages involving children. The AP report cites a 2024 Guatemalan raid that took at least 160 minors and 40 women into protective custody, a 2022 Mexican arrest near the Guatemalan border and 2021 convictions in New York of two group leaders for kidnapping and child sexual exploitation crimes.
The US role now becomes central. AP says the children will be in the care of Child Protective Services while US officials check whether there are pending investigations against the adults. That means the Colombian action may be just one stage in a wider multi-country legal process.
The story also illustrates how quickly child-welfare concerns can cross borders when a group known for moving internationally comes under suspicion. Colombia’s migration agency said it acted before the group could establish a compound, suggesting the authorities saw urgency in preventing further entrenchment.
For Lev Tahor, the expulsion is another reminder that its mobility does not keep it beyond the reach of law enforcement. For Colombia, it is a case of intervention before a larger investigation could become more difficult. And for the children involved, the immediate question is what protection and oversight they will have now that they have been sent to the United States.
