WASHINGTON (AP) – Federal judges are temporarily following measures to prevent the Trump administration from deporting Guatemalan immigrant children in government custody.
Judge Timothy J. Kelly’s decision on Saturday prevented the government from removing Guatemalan children who came to the United States alone and currently reside in government shelters and foster care.
Kelly’s order said he needed a brief extension to continue studying the issue, as the facts in the case were still changing until the September 10 hearing. His decision was taken at a hearing by the government, which is a backtrack to previous claims that children’s parents demanded their return.
The court’s ruling stems from the Labor Day weekend action when the Trump administration tried to remove dozens of Guatemalan immigrant children who came to the United States alone and lived in U.S. government shelters and foster care.
In a late-night operation on August 30, the government notified the shelter where immigrant children traveled alone after crossing the southern border and they would send their children back to Guatemala, where they would need to prepare to leave their children within a few hours.
Immigration and customs enforcement contractors picked up Guatemalan children from shelters and foster care and transported them to the airport. The government said in court documents it determined that 457 children could be evacuated from Guatemala, although the list was eventually reduced to 327. Finally, there are 76 boarding planes in El Paso and El Paso, Texas, and Harlingen, Texas, and will depart early August 31 and define the first phase as the government described in the government.
Immigration and child advocates have been warned that they may work to remove Guatemala minors, who immediately sued the Trump administration to prevent child removal. Advocates believe that many of these children are fleeing abuse or violence in their home countries, and the government is bypassing long-standing legal processes designed to protect young immigrants from being returned to potentially abuse or violence sites.
A federal judge in Washington granted advocates a 14-day temporary restraining order, largely preventing the Trump administration from deleting immigrant children under his care, unless in limited circumstances the immigration judge has ordered them to be removed after reviewing the case. Kelly’s Saturday order extends that protection to September 16.
The government argues that it has the right to return to child care and act at the request of the Guatemala government.
The Guatemala government said it was a concern for minors detained by minors who would be 18 years old and then at risk of being handed over to adult detention centers.
Often, children who cross the border alone are transferred to the Department of Health and Human Services’ Refugee Resettlement Office. Children usually live in networks of shelter across the country, which are supervised by the resettlement office until they are eventually released to sponsors, usually relatives.
