A legal assistance organization has filed a lawsuit to prevent any potential actions by the U.S. government aimed at deporting twelve Honduran children, stating that it had reliable information suggesting such actions were being discretely planned.
The Florence Immigrant & Refugee Rights Project (FIRRP), based in Arizona, included Honduran children in a lawsuit originally submitted last weekend. This lawsuit had previously led to a judge temporarily stopping the deportation of numerous migrant children back to Guatemala.
In their announcement, the group mentioned receiving indications that the U.S. government is prepared to proceed imminently with plans to unlawfully deport Honduran children currently in custody. This action would violate their right to seek asylum in the U.S. and goes against ongoing legal challenges that had halted similar deportation attempts involving Guatemalan children.
FIRRP has not yet shared specifics with The Associated Press regarding the information received about the impending deportation of the Honduran children. Details of the lawsuit amendment are confidential within federal court proceedings. The Department of Homeland Security did not respond to email inquiries on Friday or Saturday.
On Saturday, the Justice Department provided an extensive overview of a hectic Labor Day weekend situation related to the attempted deportation of 76 Guatemalan children. This timeline served as part of a plea to rescind a temporary block on their deportation.
During the Labor Day weekend, the Trump administration sought to deport Guatemalan children who had arrived in the U.S. unaccompanied and were placed in shelters or with foster families within the country.
Advocates who represent migrant children in court filed lawsuits across the country seeking to stop the government from removing the children, and on Sunday a federal judge stepped in to order that the kids stay in the U.S. for at least two weeks.
The government initially identified 457 Guatemalan children for possible deportation, according to Saturday’s filing. None could have a pending asylum screening or claim, resulting in the removal of 91. They had to have parents or legal guardians in Guatemala and be at least 10 years old.
In the end, 327 children were found eligible for deportation, including 76 who boarded planes early Sunday in what the government described as a first phase, according to a statement by Angie Salazar, acting director of the U.S. Health and Human Services Department’s Office of Refugee Resettlement. All 76 were at least 14 years old and “self-reported” that they had a parent or legal guardian in Guatemala but none in the United States.
The Justice Department said no planes took off, despite a comment by one of its attorneys in court Sunday that one may have but returned.
Children who cross the border alone are generally transferred to the Office of Refugee Resettlement, which falls under the Health and Human Services Department. The children usually live in a network of shelters across the country that are overseen by the resettlement office until they are eventually released to a sponsor — usually a relative
Children began crossing the border alone in large numbers in 2014, peaking at 152,060 in the 2022 fiscal year. July’s arrest tally translates to an annual clip of 5,712 arrests, reflecting how illegal crossings have dropped to their lowest levels in six decades.
Guatemalans accounted for 32% of residents at government-run holding facilities last year, followed by Hondurans, Mexicans and El Salvadorans. A 2008 law requires children to appear before an immigration judge with an opportunity to pursue asylum, unless they are from Canada and Mexico. The vast majority are released from shelters to parents, legal guardians or immediate family while their cases wind through court.
Justice Department lawyers said federal law allows the Department of Health and Human Services to “repatriate” or “reunite” children by taking them out of the U.S., as long as the child hasn’t been a victim of “severe” human trafficking, is not at risk for becoming so if he or she is returned to their native country and does not face a “a credible fear” of persecution there. The child also cannot be “repatriated” if he or she has a pending asylum claim.
The FIRRP lawsuit was amended to include 12 children from Honduras who have expressed to the Florence Project that they do not want to return to Honduras, as well as four additional children from Guatemala who have come into government custody in Arizona since the suit was initially filed last week.
Some children have parents who are already in the United States.
The lawsuit demands that the government allow the children their legal right to present their cases to an immigration judge, to have access to legal counsel and to be placed in the least restrictive setting that is in the best interest of the child.
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Associated Press reporters Rebecca Santana and Valerie Gonzalez contributed to this report from Washington, D.C. and Texas, respectively.
