Legal professionals representing 10 Guatemalan kids between the ages of 10 and 17 in authorities custody are desperately making an attempt to halt the Trump administration’s plans to repatriate a whole bunch of Guatemalan unaccompanied minors as plans seems to be underway.
A federal choose briefly blocked the administration from eradicating the minors and set an emergency listening to for 3 p.m. Sunday, however U.S. District Choose Sparkle Sooknanan moved the listening to to 12:30 p.m after the courtroom was notified the Guatemalan kids have been “within the technique of being faraway from the U.S.”
In courtroom filings, the attorneys are accusing the Trump administration of making an attempt to repatriate greater than 600 unaccompanied Guatemalan minors in coordination with the Guatemalan authorities in violation of legal guidelines that stop such strikes with out giving them the chance to problem the removals.
Unaccompanied minors are migrants below the age of 18 who’ve come to the nation with out a authorized guardian and shouldn’t have authorized standing. The kids in query within the lawsuit are all reportedly within the custody of the Workplace of Refugee Resettlement.
In an announcement, the Nationwide Immigration Legislation Heart, which filed the lawsuit, mentioned the Trump administration is denying the Guatemalan kids from having the ability to current their case earlier than an immigration choose.
“It’s a darkish and harmful second for this nation when our authorities chooses to focus on orphaned 10-year-olds and denies them their most elementary authorized proper to current their case earlier than an immigration choose,” mentioned Efrén C. Olivares, vice chairman of litigation on the NILC. “The Structure and federal legal guidelines present strong protections to unaccompanied minors particularly due to the distinctive dangers they face. We’re decided to make use of each authorized instrument at our disposal to pressure the administration to respect the regulation and never ship any baby to hazard.”
EL PASO, TEXAS – JANUARY 30: Eighty migrants from Guatemala are deported to their nation with a United States army airplane on the Fort Bliss facility in El Paso, Texas, on Jan. 30, 2025. (Picture by Christian Torres/Anadolu through Getty Pictures)
Anadolu through Getty Pictures
In one other courtroom submitting, NILC mentioned that after it tried to tell the federal government that it had filed a movement for a short lived restraining order, they realized shelters in South Texas had been “notified to arrange Guatemalan kids of their custody for discharge.”
“Upon data and perception, ICE brokers and their contractors have began making an attempt to choose up Guatemalan unaccompanied kids from shelters in South Texas to move them to the airport for potential elimination from america as quickly because the early morning of Sunday, August 31, 2025,” NILC mentioned within the submitting.
The lawsuit was filed on Saturday after authorized service suppliers acquired notices from the Workplace of Refugee Resettlement that kids of their program have been recognized for reunification. Within the discover, the company mentioned that courtroom proceedings for kids recognized by the company “could also be dismissed.”
“ORR Care Suppliers should take proactive measures to make sure UAC are ready for discharge inside 2 hours of receiving this notification,” the discover mentioned.
In one of many notices submitted in courtroom filings, ORR has knowledgeable sure attorneys for unaccompanied minors that the “Authorities of Guatemala has requested the return of sure unaccompanied alien kids basically custody” to be reunited “with appropriate relations.”
Within the assertion, NILC mentioned that as a result of most Guatemalan kids in U.S. custody are indigenous and lots of communicate languages aside from English or Spanish, they’re extra weak to “being misled by officers seeking to deport them.”
One of many kids represented within the case is a ten yr previous indigenous woman who speaks a uncommon language.
“Her mom is deceased and she or he suffered abuse and neglect from different caregivers,” the grievance says.
