Judge’s Emergency Halt Dramatically Blocks Trump From Deporting Guatemalan Kids as Planes Were Ready to Takeoff
(AP Photo/Valerie Gonzalez)
A federal judge early on Sunday morning blocked President Donald Trump‘s administration from deporting hundreds of Guatemalan children — with the order coming as some of the kids were sitting on planes in Texas, ready to be sent back to their home country.
U.S. District Judge Sparkle Sooknanan in Washington, D.C. temporarily halted the move at 4:00 a.m. ET, after attorneys for the roughly 600 kids said they did not have a chance to contest their deportation. Sooknanan held an emergency hearing at 12:30 p.m. ET on Sunday to weigh the circumstances.
“I have the government attempting to remove minor children from the country in the wee hours of the morning on a holiday weekend, which is surprising, but here we are,” the judge said at the hearing, Politico reported.
Sooknanan added she was getting “conflicting narratives” on the plan from the Trump Administration and attorneys for the children. Trump Administration lawyers said the kids, who arrived unaccompanied in the U.S., were part of a “first of its kind pilot program” to send them back to their home country, in cooperation with the Guatemalan government.
The kids, between the ages of 10 and 17, are supported by the Young Center for Immigrant Children’s Rights, which said the Trump Administration is attempting to unlawfully deport the children, despite ongoing legal proceedings.
Judge Sooknanan, who was appointed by former President Joe Biden, granted a temporary halt to the deportation for the next two weeks, saying the “exigent circumstances” of the case warranted maintaining “the status quo.”
Deputy Assistant Attorney General Drew Ensign, according to ABC News, said it was “possible” one flight with some children had taken off for Guatemala before returning to the U.S. Ensign said all the kids were in the custody of the U.S. government and no flights would happen for the time being, following the judge’s order.
The judge’s order is the latest move that has thwarted the Trump Administration’s plan to crackdown on people who have entered the U.S. illegally. On Friday, another federal judge blocked the administration’s push to swiftly remove non-citizens who were in the States illegally.
