Judge keeps block on Trump push to deport Guatemalan unaccompanied children

US federal judge rebukes the Trump administration’s claims that the minors’ parents wanted them deported.

A United States judge has ordered the administration of President Donald Trump to refrain from deporting Guatemalan unaccompanied migrant children with active immigration cases while a legal challenge plays out.

Judge Timothy Kelly, a Trump appointee based in Washington, DC, kept in place on Thursday an earlier judicial block on the policy, sharply criticising the administration’s unproven assertion that the children’s parents wanted them deported.

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Trump’s administration attempted to deport 76 Guatemalan minors being held in US custody in a surprise move in the early morning on August 31, sparking a lawsuit and emergency hearing that temporarily halted the move.

Justice Department lawyer Drew Ensign initially said that the children’s parents requested they be returned home, but the department later rescinded that claim.

The reversal came after Reuters published an internal report by a Guatemalan attorney general showing that most parents of the roughly 600 Guatemalan children in US custody could not be contacted. Of those contacted, many did not want their children returned to Guatemala, the report said.

In a 43-page opinion, Kelly said the Trump administration’s explanation “crumbled like a house of cards” in light of the Guatemalan government report.

“There is no evidence before the Court that the parents of these children sought their return,” Kelly wrote.

The federal judge blocked the rapid deportation of Guatemalan unaccompanied children who have not received a final removal order or permission from the US attorney general to depart while their cases remain active.

In the ruling, the judge said the children were unexpectedly taken from their shelter beds in the middle of the night, driven to the airport and, in some cases, put on planes, leaving them worried and confused.

At one shelter in McAllen, Texas, a young girl was so scared that she vomited, Kelly wrote, citing evidence submitted in the case.

Tricia McLaughlin, a spokesperson for the US Department of Homeland Security, said the ruling would prevent children from reuniting with their parents.

“Now these children will have to go to shelters,” McLaughlin said, calling it “disgraceful and immoral”.

Migrant children who arrive at US borders without a parent or guardian are classified as unaccompanied and sent to federal government-run shelters until they can be placed with a family member or foster home, a process outlined in federal law.

A Guatemalan mother, whose 16-year-old son could be subject to the Trump administration deportation effort, told Reuters that her son would like to remain in California even though she misses him.

“This is what he wanted,” she said during an interview earlier this month on the outskirts of Guatemala City.

The mother, who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity, works 15 hours a day at a restaurant and makes just enough money to cover rent and food, she said.