A federal judge issued a ban on Thursday that barred the Trump administration from deporting hundreds of illegal immigrant children to Guatemala, saying the administration’s “mistakeable actions” were blown away through safeguards designed to protect children.
Judge Timothy KellyTrump appointees in the Washington Court said the administration’s defense of its plan “crashed like a house of cards” once tested in court.
He certified the class action lawsuit and issued a preliminary injunction to protect minors.
Trump officials have said they are trying to unite the children who come to the United States as unaccompanied alien children and their families return to Guatemala.
But judge Kelly Said attempts to expel them were full of incest—including families that didn’t even ask the children to come back.
“The court has no evidence that the parents of these children are seeking to return. Instead, the Prime Minister of Guatemala’s Attorney General reported that officials were unable to track parents for children who were found to be eligible for the “reunification” program. And, none of them asked their children to return to Guatemala,” the judge wrote.
Meanwhile, the children’s lawyers say many children don’t have the opportunity to fully argue why they should be allowed to stay here.
Judge Kelly The “hazard” deportation operation violated the 2008 Victims Protection Reauthorization Act (TVRPA), which sets strict standards on how governments must treat UAC from countries outside Mexico and Canada.
Under the law, minors who have no parents arrived in the U.S. must quickly hand it over from the Department of Homeland Security to the Department of Health and Human Services, which places them in shelters while seeking sponsors to keep them longer in immigration cases.
The ruling has hit the Trump administration, which aims to try to find a way to clear some of the backlog of immigrant children in the HHS pipeline.
The government argues that TVPRA allows UAC to be deported even if they fail to pass the full immigration case.
Federal lawyers pointed out that part of the law encourages “safe repatriation” with families outside the United States as a justification for short-circuit court proceedings.
Government lawyers said it conducted potential deportations through a nine-point list to determine whether they are “fit for unity”, including the lack of American parents ready to sponsor them, but there is a parent in Guatemala who has no shelter and no signs of trafficking.
Meanwhile, children’s lawyers have issued many statements challenging the government’s claims. They drew a picture of a scared child, and they often said they had no family to go back, even if they wanted to do so.
Judge Kelly Said the government didn’t even ask the kids if they wanted to return. Instead, HHS made a judgment based on the Department of Homeland Security’s immigration files.
Judge Kelly Say there is no evidence that “any child” wants to return.
His ruling still allows deportation of Guatemalan children who have exhausted immigration court proceedings and have been revoked or sought voluntary return.
Judge Kelly is the second jurist assigned to the case. Judge Sparkle Sooknanan, the Biden-appointed man, first heard in an emergency, when he issued a temporary restraining order to immediately expel the child.
About 76 of them were loaded on the plane and were waiting for takeoff on August 31, when lawyers rushed to court to stop the court. Judge Sooknanan agreed to order the children to get off the plane.
