The president’s administration had collaborated with Guatemalan officials to reunite the children with their parents.
U.S. District Judge Sparkle Sooknanan issued an emergency order on Sunday to halt President Trump’s administration from sending over 600 unaccompanied migrant children to Guatemala to be with their parents or families. The judge characterized the removal of the children as “deportations.“
The Health and Human Services’ Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR), the agency overseeing these 600 children, announced the plan to return them days ahead of the first scheduled flight. During the emergency hearing, the administration stated that many of these removals were made in collaboration with Guatemala to reunite the children with their parents, which means they are not deportations and therefore means the children do not require deportation hearings before their removal from the United States.
“These are not removals under the statute,” said Justice Department attorney Drew Ensign. “These are repatriations. … It’s outrageous that the plaintiffs are trying to interfere with these reunifications.”
Lawyers for 10 of these children filed for an emergency block against their removal, claiming that this argument does not apply to at least the 10 children who would require deportation hearings before their removal.
“There are many children who do not meet the criteria Mr. Ensign described,” attorney Efrén Olivares of the National Immigration Law Center said.
Judge Sooknanan agreed to grant the emergency block in light of these arguments.
As the Lord Leads, Pray with Us…
- For federal judges to uphold U.S. immigration laws and ensure that unaccompanied children are safe from exploitation.
- For members of the president’s administration as they seek to repatriate children to their home countries and reunite them with their parents.
Sources: Reuters, MSN, Politico
