(Adnkronos) – A US judge has ordered the emergency suspension of the Trump administration’s decision to deport a group of about 700 unaccompanied Guatemalan children to their country of origin, after immigration defense attorneys called the decision “illegal.” Lawyers for 10 Guatemalan minors, aged between 10 and 17, stated in court documents filed Saturday evening that, according to some reports, planes were due to take off within hours for the Central American country. However, a federal judge in Washington ruled that the children could not be expelled before 14 days and, after an emergency hearing held yesterday, ordered that they be taken off the planes and returned to the Office of Refugee Resettlement facilities while legal proceedings take place.
Judge Sparkle L. Sooknanan, appointed by Joe Biden, opened the hearing yesterday afternoon by ensuring that the Department of Justice had received her expanded order and that government officials were aware of it. “I don’t want there to be any ambiguity,” she said, adding that her ruling broadly applies to Guatemalan minors who arrived in the United States without parents or guardians. Meanwhile, government attorneys argued that the children were not being deported, but rather reunited with parents or guardians at their request, a claim that the children’s attorneys dispute, at least in some cases.
