WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge has temporarily upheld measures that prevent the Trump administration from deporting Guatemalan migrant children who are currently in government custody.
On Saturday, Judge Timothy J. Kelly ruled that the government cannot remove Guatemalan children who arrived in the U.S. without accompanying adults and are being housed in government shelters and foster care until at least Sept. 16.
In his order, Kelly mentioned the need for additional time to examine the case further, as the facts were still evolving up until the Sept. 10 hearing. This decision followed the government’s retraction during the hearing of earlier assertions that the children’s parents had sought their return.
The court’s decision relates back to actions during the Labor Day weekend when the Trump administration made efforts to deport numerous Guatemalan children who had entered the U.S. on their own and were staying in U.S. government facilities.
On the night of Aug. 30, the administration informed shelters housing unaccompanied migrant children that they would soon be sending these children back to Guatemala and instructed them to prepare the children for departure on short notice.
Contractors working for Immigration and Customs Enforcement collected the Guatemalan children from shelters and foster placements, transporting them to the airport. In court filings, the government reported identifying 457 children for potential deportation to Guatemala, though the number was later reduced to 327. Ultimately, 76 children boarded planes in El Paso and Harlingen, Texas, early in the morning of Aug. 31 as part of what the government referred to as the initial stage.
Immigration and children’s advocates, who had been alerted of possible efforts to remove Guatemalan minors, immediately sued the Trump administration to prevent the children’s removal. The advocates argued that many of these children were fleeing abuse or violence in their home countries and that the government was bypassing longstanding legal procedures meant to protect young migrants from being returned to potentially abusive or violent places.
A federal judge in Washington granted advocates a 14-day temporary restraining order largely preventing the Trump administration from removing migrant children in its care except in limited circumstances where an immigration judge had already ordered their removal after reviewing their cases. Kelly’s Saturday order extends that protection three more days.
The government has argued that it has the right to return children in their care and it was acting at the behest of the Guatemalan government.
The Guatemalan government has said that it was concerned over minors in U.S. custody who were going to turn 18 and would then be at risk of being turned over to adult detention facilities.
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’s advocates have also asked the Washington court for longer-term protections preventing the government from removing all children in government custody, with a few limited exceptions, while the lawsuit plays out in court. Advocates made that request after hearing reports that the government was intending to remove Honduran children as well. The court has yet to rule on that request.
There are also temporary restraining orders in separate cases in Arizona and Illinois also filed during the Labor Day weekend where advocates sued to restrict the government from removing Guatemalan and later Honduran children, but those cases are more narrow in scope of children they cover than the Washington case.
