WASHINGTON (AP) – A federal judge on Thursday stopped President Donald Trump’s administration from being deported soon Guatemala immigrant children They returned to their home country alone. The court’s latest steps are fighting one of the most sensitive issues of Trump’s hard-hit immigration agenda.
The decision by US District Judge Timothy J. Kelly comes after a Republican administration’s Labor Day weekend attempted to eliminate Guatemalan immigrant children who lived and fostered government shelters.
Trump administration officials said they were trying to reunify the parents and children they wanted to return home. “But that explanation fell apart about a week later, like a card house,” Kelly wrote. “There is no evidence before the court that the parents of these children asked for their return.”
It was already there Temporary orders It prevents removal of children in Guatemala. But it was set to expire on Tuesday. Kelly, appointed by Trump, has granted that the government can appeal, but that temporary protection would indefinitely extend that temporary protection.
Kelly refused to promote supporters to stop the removal of children from additional countries, but said attempts to remove those children in a similar way are likely illegal.
There are also temporary restraint orders in separate Arizona and Illinois cases, but these cases have a much narrower range of children highlighting the importance of the Washington case.
In a late-night operation on August 30, the administration notified the shelter where immigrant children travel alone first live after crossing the southern border that they were ready to leave for hours.
Immigration and customs enforcement contractors welcomed Guatemalan children from shelters, nurtured care and transported them to the airport. The government said it has identified 457 children with the possibility of removal in Guatemala, but the list ultimately reached 327. Ultimately, 76 people were scheduled to depart for Guatemala, which the government described as the first stage, to boarding planes in El Paso and Harlingen, Texas, on August 31.
Warned about possible efforts to eliminate Guatemala minors, immigrants and children advocates immediately sued the Trump administration to prevent the removal of children. Advocates argued that many of these children have escaped abuse and violence in their home countries, and that the government has bypassed years of legal procedures to prevent young immigrants from being reverted to potentially abusive or violent places.
