Attorneys and advocates fear that about 1,000 Central American children, including dozens in California, could be deported to their home country before completing immigration court lawsuits.
They believe the U.S. government is now expanding the national list of hundreds of children from children from Guatemala, including children from Honduras and El Salvador. Some children’s lawyers have seen their scheduled hearing disappear from the immigration court calendar in recent weeks.
“The past two weeks have been heartbreaking and angering, and our child clients must be warned of the dangers of our administration trying to violate their rights and restore them to danger,” said Marion Donovan-Kaloust, director of Legal Services at the Los Angeles Immigration Dismissor Law Center, which represents minors without partners. “The fact that the government is stating this cruel plan should shock everyone’s conscience.”
In the middle of the night on Labor Day weekend, the government evacuated 76 Guatemalan children from shelters in Arizona and Texas. Many of their cases have disappeared from the calendar, according to court documents, where the Department of Homeland Security placed it on a plane planned to return to Guatemala without telling parents.
A transport truck with immigrants left the Valley International Airport on Sunday, August 31, 2025 in Harlingen, Texas.
(Michael Gonzalez/AP)
A federal judge blocked the flight with emergency orders while the child was sitting on the plane on the tarmac. Many people are worried about their safety and if they return to Guatemala, lawyers say they face Gang Violence,,,,, Physical abuse and Ignore.
The U.S. Department of Justice attorney Sara Welch said at a hearing this week that there is no immediate plan to remove immigrant children from other countries. The Department of Homeland Security and the Refugee Resettlement Office did not respond to requests for comment.
A legal aid worker who understands the situation said that his Honduran colleagues expect to send 300 children back to the country, which will allow refugees nationwide to resettle almost all of Honduran children in detention centers. The worker said another 100 unaccompanied children from El Salvador were detained by the U.S. government.
Earlier this summer, Guatemalan officials said U.S. officials had sent them List of 609 teenagers Ages 14-17 will return to the country. Legal aid workers say at least 40 immigrant children living in California are on the list.
In a pledge announcement on September 6, Angie Salazar, acting director of the Refugee Resettlement Office, said 457 Guatemalan children were initially identified as “probably suitable for reunion with parents or legal guardians”, but after reviewing individual cases, 327 children were determined to be eligible to dismiss our case
At this week’s hearing, Welch returned to an earlier government statement that the children’s parents asked them to return and later became a lawyer for minors Made a memo The Guatemala Attorney General shows officials have contacted about 115 families, with nearly half of them feeling frustrated by returning to their children.
Another 50 families said they were willing to accept their children but did not ask them to return. In one case, the memorandum stated that parents said they would “do whatever they can” to bring their daughter out of the country again “because she was experiencing a death threat.”
Since deportation on holiday weekends, children’s lawyers have been on high alert for borders without legal guardians to cross the border, and now under the care of the Refugee Resettlement Office.
A Texas-based attorney for Estrella del Paso said in her sworn in statement that she said on September 5 Received anonymous call From “the government plans to repatriate all children under ORR custody without notice.”
Another attorney, Roxana Avila-Cimpeanu, deputy director of the Immigration and Refugee Rights Program in Florence, Arizona Say similarly On the same day, “reliable reports continue to leak information from the network about the imminent removal of Honduran children.”
On August 31, there was no letter to wake up the Guatemalan children’s facilities in late night.
“Neglect or intentional failure to comply with the ORR’s legal request for child care in your care facility will promptly take legal action and may result in civil and criminal penalties and charges, as well as suspension and termination of the contractual relationship with your facility.”
Shaina Aber, executive director of the Acacia Justice Center, said the letter frightened shelters and foster families.
“We heard from shelters and foster families that they were very nervous and they didn’t know whether to comply with the law because they learned about the law from years of completing the work, or with this novel extrajudicial process,” said Arbor.
Attorneys in the case asked Trump-appointed Judge Timothy R. Kelly to extend an emergency order that expires on Sunday and stops evacuating children from other countries that do not wish to be returned. They argue that U.S. officials have no authority to remove them from office and do not provide them with the opportunity to hear cases of asylum before immigration judges.
“I’m sure the person who hurt me and who threatens to kill me will hurt me again and will cause a threat to kill me,” a 17-year-old said in court records.
Among them is a 16-year-old Guatemalan boy in full-length foster care in Fullerton. His immigration procedures have been closed and have not been decided yet. The other is a 16-year-old Guatemalan girl living in foster care on the riverfront. She is in the immigration process and is afraid of being sent back. Both are represented by the Immigration Defenders Law Center.
EfrénC, Vice President of Litigation and Legal Strategy, National Immigration Law Center. Olivares said some Guatemalan children in the United States were interviewed by officials from homeland security investigations. Some family members in Guatemala also received calls from local government officials who said their children would be sent back.
Olivares, one of the leading lawyers for the plaintiffs in Washington, warned whether the court supports the Trump administration: “They can do so with ORR custody of all nationalities.”
“This is the worst case,” he said.
Guatemalan officials have Publicly acknowledged Coordinating efforts with the United States to receive hundreds of children currently held in U.S. facilities.
Honduras Government Posted on September 1 X It launched efforts to coordinate the “safe return of minors expelled from the United States.”
Although the El Salvador government has not released a public communication on the repatriation of children in the United States, Olivares pointed out earlier this year Send to the infamous large prison In El Salvador.
“They have a very close relationship, which makes them very close,” Orvarez said.
Meanwhile, two local cases are being aired in Illinois and Arizona.
ThursdayA federal judge in Arizona temporarily blocked the Trump administration, evacuating dozens of children living in Guatemala and Honduras who live in shelters or foster care. Similarly, a federal judge stopped the evacuation of children from Guatemala, Illinois, and a hearing is scheduled to be held on Tuesday.
“These children are actually without parents and are very vulnerable,” said Laura Smith, executive director of the Chicago Children’s Law Center. Attorneys in the Illinois case also received news from a factory shortly after Labor Day that immigration officials were preparing to take over the detention center for children in Honduran. “So I was surprised by the government’s attack.”
The move to expel unaccompanied children is a broader effort to deprive young immigrants of protection. For example, the government attempts to provide termination funds to lawyers representing unaccompanied children. It also seeks to end a decades-long agreement requiring minimum standards of care for children in detention.
