A federal judge blocked the Trump administration on Thursday from immediately deporting unaccompanied Guatemalan migrant children back to their home country in the latest legal salvo over the president’s immigration crackdown.
U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly’s preliminary injunction follows an attempt by the government over Labor Day weekend to remove Guatemalan minors in custody from the United States.
Kelly’s ruling extends a temporary order already in place preventing the removal of the Guatemalan migrant children. That order, which the judge extended indefinitely, was set to expire on Tuesday. However, the government can appeal the decision.
The preliminary injunction halts the removal of the children while the court considers a lawsuit that argues they are entitled to full immigration proceedings under federal law.
In his opinion, Kelly, who is an appointee of President Donald Trump, questioned how the administration handled the operation earlier this month.
“Defendants’ conduct does not inspire confidence that they themselves are convinced that they have the authority to proceed as they would like,” the judge wrote. “If their statutory authority is so ‘unambiguous,’ why exercise it in the middle of the night on a holiday weekend with nothing but a late-night (or early-morning) notice to the children’s caretakers and advocates?”
“Defendants should not construe this decision as an invitation to take similar action with respect to these other unaccompanied alien children,” he added.
Filed by the National Immigration Law Center, the lawsuit includes 10 Guatemalan children ages 10 to 17 whose lawyers have argued they would face grave danger if returned to Guatemala.
According to the opinion, one of the children said he “experienced neglect and abandonment from” his father in Guatemala and his mother “didn’t think she could protect” him “from the violent drug dealers.”
Another is afraid to return to Guatemala because his sister was recently murdered there and because his family members are either unwilling or unable to care for him, according to court documents. And a third said that the conditions she would return to in Guatemala would lead her to suicidal behavior.
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