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A federal judge on Aug. 31 issued a restraining order blocking the Trump administration from deporting 10 unaccompanied migrant Guatemalan children and potentially hundreds more in federal custody.
Judge Sparkle L. Sooknanan of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia issued a temporary restraining order stopping the Trump administration from deporting the children, ages 10 to 17, for 14 days after the National Immigration Law Center filed an emergency request.
Migrant children who arrive in the United States without a parent or guardian are classified as unaccompanied minors and sent to a shelter managed by the Office of Refugee Resettlement until they can be placed with a family member or foster home, a process outlined in federal law.
Efrén C. Olivares, an attorney at the National Immigration Law Center, hailed the judge’s decision.
“In the dead of night on a holiday weekend, the Trump administration ripped vulnerable, frightened children from their beds and attempted to return them to danger in Guatemala,” Olivares said in a statement. “We are heartened the court prevented this injustice from occurring before hundreds of children suffered irreparable harm.”
The lawsuit argued that the administration’s plan to expel the children violates protections under the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act, a federal legislation passed in 2008. The lawsuit also said the government was “imminently planning” to put them on flights to Guatemala, “where they may face abuse, neglect, persecution, or even torture, against their best interests.”
One of the children, a plaintiff identified as L.G.M.L., is a 10-year-old Guatemalan child who is “indigenous and speaks a rare language,” according to the lawsuit. She was detained at Urban Strategies, a children’s shelter in San Benito, Texas.
“Her mother is deceased, and she suffered abuse and neglect from other caregivers,” the lawsuit claims.
Attorneys said there are around 600 children who could be at risk for deportation.
Stephen Miller, the deputy chief of staff for Policy and Homeland Security, and an architect of President Donald Trump’s aggressive immigration crackdown, condemned Sooknanan’s decision.
“The Biden judge is effectively kidnapping these migrant children and refusing to let them return home to their parents in their home country,” Miller said on social media.
In March, the Trump administration canceled a $200 million legal representation contract for 26,000 children who crossed the U.S. border as unaccompanied minors.
Contributing: Reuters
