Judge blocks Trump administration from deporting Guatemalan migrant children

WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge on Thursday blocked President Donald Trump’s administration from immediately deporting Guatemalan migrant children who came to the United States alone back to their home country, the latest step in a court struggle over one of the most sensitive issues in Trump’s hard-line immigration agenda.

The decision by US District Judge Timothy J. Kelly comes after the Republican administration’s Labour Day weekend attempt to remove Guatemalan migrant children who were living in government shelters and foster care.

Trump administration officials said they were seeking to reunify children with parents who wanted them returned home. “But that explanation crumbled like a house of cards about a week later,” Kelly, who was nominated by Trump, wrote.

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

Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin in a statement insisted on the administration’s initial claims that parents requested being reunited with their children.

“This judge is blocking efforts to REUNIFY CHILDREN with their families. Now these children will have to go to shelters,” McLaughlin said.

“All just to ‘get Trump.’ This is disgraceful and immoral.”

A spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Advocates for the children also submitted a whistleblower account to the court that suggests many of the children who were found eligible for deportation had likely been victims of child abuse, like death threats, gang violence, and human trafficking, Kelly noted in his order.

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