On Wednesday, immigrant rights lawyers urged a federal judge in Washington, D.C., to prevent the Trump administration from deporting hundreds of Guatemalan minors. They contended that the minors, aged between 10 and 17, could face neglect or persecution if returned home. The lawyers emphasized that many of these children have pending asylum cases or legal claims yet to be evaluated in court. They argued that trafficking and immigration laws exist to protect unaccompanied minors from being sent back without due process, stating they cannot simply be “whisked off under cover of darkness at the whim of any government…”
These minors are currently in the custody of Health and Human Services. The attorneys pointed out that they have no legal guardians in the United States, adding to their vulnerability. The legal team is now pursuing a longer-term injunction to replace an emergency order issued by Judge Sparkle Sooknanan over the holiday weekend, which temporarily halted deportations. This emergency order came after reports indicated that over sixty of these minors had been unexpectedly transferred from HHS to Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody and were placed on a flight to Guatemala.
Judge Sooknanan’s decision has garnered attention for several reasons. Firstly, it involves potentially hundreds of minors facing abrupt removal from the country. Secondly, the judge initially imposed an immediate restraining order against the Trump administration to stop the deportations. This swift action followed a separate situation where a judge had previously issued a controversial oral order regarding alleged gang members that the Trump administration deemed ambiguous.
In her ruling, Sooknanan left no room for ambiguity. She demanded the deplaning of the minors and their return to the HHS Office of Refugee Resettlement. Furthermore, she insisted on receiving status updates from the Department of Justice every few hours until the process was finished. The DOJ complied with these strict orders.
The lawsuit involves ten Guatemalan minors living in the U.S. without guardians. Their attorneys described these children as “vulnerable,” stating they are entitled to “enhanced protection and care.” The legal representatives accused the Trump administration of ignoring laws and constitutional protections in their attempts to deport these minors unlawfully.
Judge Sooknanan’s ruling allowed for a class-action lawsuit, broadening its scope to include not only the ten named plaintiffs but also other minors in similar situations under HHS custody. After the temporary restraining order, the case was reassigned to Judge Timothy Kelly, a Trump appointee, who has scheduled a hearing for next week regarding the migrants’ new request for a preliminary injunction.
The attorneys revealed that they learned through media reports that ICE was planning to deport the minors imminently to Guatemala. They warned that in their home country, the children might encounter “abuse, neglect, persecution, or even torture.” They took note of how federal authorities reportedly “woke children in the night” and subjected them to the stress of imminent removal. “But for this Court’s intervention while the plane sat on the tarmac in Texas, those children would have been expelled to Guatemala…” the attorneys argued in court.
During last-minute hearings over the weekend, a DOJ lawyer informed the judge that the Guatemalan government had requested the return of the minors, asserting that “all of these children have their parents or guardians in Guatemala who are requesting their return.” This assertion was met with criticism. A spokesperson from the Department of Homeland Security labeled Judge Sooknanan’s temporary order as “disgusting,” claiming that the DHS was simply trying to reunite the children with their families. “Now these children have to go to shelters,…” the spokesperson noted, declaring the situation “disgusting and immoral.”
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