WASHINGTON — A federal judge has issued a temporary order to stop the U.S. government from deporting unaccompanied Guatemalan children. The ruling by U.S. District Judge Sparkle L. Sooknanan on Sunday came after a last-minute lawsuit was filed by immigrant advocacy groups, including the National Immigration Law Center and the Young Center for Immigrant Children’s Rights, who argued the deportations violated legal protections for minors, according to The Guardian.
The lawsuit, filed in the early hours of Sunday morning, alleged that the government was preparing to deport hundreds of children, some of whom were already on planes waiting on tarmacs in Texas. According to a report from The Associated Press, Judge Sooknanan stated, “I do not want there to be any ambiguity” about her ruling, which applies to all Guatemalan minors who arrived in the U.S. without a parent or guardian.
The Justice Department, representing the Trump administration, argued that the children were being “repatriated” and that the deportations were part of a pilot program to reunite them with their parents or guardians in Guatemala, as reported by Fox News. However, the lawsuit claimed that the children were being transferred from the Office of Refugee Resettlement to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody, bypassing normal legal procedures and due process.
The judge’s temporary restraining order prevents the deportations for at least 14 days, providing time for the legal process to unfold. According to a CBS News report, the Justice Department stated that 76 children were slated for deportation before the order was issued. The court ordered that those children be removed from the planes and returned to the care of the Office of Refugee Resettlement facilities.
The ruling is the latest in a series of legal challenges to the current administration’s immigration policies. Kica Matos, president of the National Immigration Law Center, told the Associated Press that the government’s attempt to deport vulnerable children on a holiday weekend “should shock the conscience of all Americans.”
