After planes with Guatemalan children were loaded in the U.S., then prevented from taking off by a federal judge's decision to temporarily halt the children's removal, the Guatemalan government said on Aug. 31 that it was responsible for recently proposing to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem that the unaccompanied Guatemalan minors be returned to their home country. In a statement published to the social media platform X on the
A federal judge temporarily blocked the Trump administration from expelling hundreds of Guatemalan children who crossed the U.S. border alone. Although the government had not obtained legal permission to remove the children, some of their lawyers said, Guatemalan children were already loaded on planes on a tarmac while the judge conducted a hearing about the situation on Sunday, a U.S. attorney confirmed. The temporary halt, issued Sunday afternoon, allows lawyers 14 more days to discuss the case and prevents any children from being removed during the next two weeks.
District Judge Sparkle Sooknanan's emergency order follows a legal complaint brought on behalf of 10 children. A United States judge has blocked the administration of US President Donald Trump from deporting unaccompanied Guatemalan children for at least the next two weeks, in the government's ongoing hardline anti-immigration push. The order, which was issued on Sunday in response to a complaint filed by a pro-immigrant advocacy group, came as some Guatemalan children were reportedly already put onto planes at a Texas airport and huddled inside.