Photo of Eri Ethington aka Rose Inessa-Ethington
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A Utah father and his girlfriend are accused of taking a 10-year-old child to Cuba for gender reassignment surgery.

Federal officials say the child’s biological father, Eri Ethington, who goes by Rose Inessa-Ethington, took the child to Cuba without the mother’s permission.

The case prompted President Trump’s Justice Department to send a plane to Cuba to bring the child back to the United States. The child is now in custody of his biological mother.

Ethington was arrested, along with partner Blue Inessa-Ethington, and charged in the U.S. with international parental kidnapping.

The couple traveled with the child and Blue’s 3-year-old daughter, for a planned camping trip last month. They crossed the border into Canada, then flew to Mexico and Cuba on April 1 – without telling the child’s mother.

Federal officials charged the couple with kidnapping for the purpose of obtaining gender reassignment surgery for the 10-year-old child.

Gender reassignment surgery for children is legal in Canada but illegal in Cuba.

The FBI said that Blue Inessa-Ethington withdrew $10,000 from her checking account in March before leaving the country with Eri and the child.

FBI agents raided the couple’s home and found a note with instructions from a mental health therapist in Washington, D.C., “to send the therapist that $10,000.00 and instructions on gender affirming medical care for children.”

The search for the 10-year-old child began when the mother filed a missing-person report with police in Logan, Utah.

A Utah state judge granted custody of the 10-year-old to the mother on April 13. A federal magistrate judge then issued an arrest warrant for the Inessa-Ethingtons.

The Cuban government located the Inessa-Ethingtons on April 13.

They were deported from Cuba to the U.S. aboard a DOJ plane on Monday, April 20, and arraigned in federal court in Richmond, Virginia.

Family members said the child was assigned male at birth but identifies as a girl because of “manipulation” by the father.

The Trump administration cut off funds for gender-affirming care for minors in December. Multiple states filed lawsuits as a result.

A GoFundMe account raised over $7,000 for the father to fight for custody of the child. Ethington’s brother tells the New York Times, the boy was manipulated to transition since he was 5 years old.