A judge halted child deportations as Guatemala’s president pledged to accept 150 unaccompanied minors weekly from the USA. 

Senator Ron Wyden, a Democrat from Oregon, wrote a letter last Friday stating that the government intends to deport around 700 Guatemalan children. The agreement with Guatemala would allow unaccompanied children to be sent back to the country.  

The Trump administration has made an effort to deport Guatemalan children living in shelters or with foster families after travelling to the US alone.  

President Bernardo Arévalo published a document stating their government will strengthen its actions. 

“The Government of Guatemala is reinforcing coordinated actions to contribute to their family reunification in Guatemala,” it read. 

Judge Sparkle L. Sooknanan ordered the children to remain in the US for a minimum of 14 days. The federal judge granted a temporary restraining order from Washington, DC, preventing children aged between 10 and 17 from being removed. 

When a court heard the urgent appeal, children that had already boarded a plane in Texas were immediately taken off and later returned to the Office of Refugee Resettlement. 

The government’s claim that the children were being reunited at their parents’ or guardians’ request rather being deported has been questioned by the children’s lawyers. 

“I have conflicting narratives from both sides here,” Sooknanan said. What the government lawyers were telling her “doesn’t quite line up” with what the children’s defenders had informed her.

Sooknanan was criticised by White House Deputy Chief of Staff, Stephen Miller for preventing the deportations. 

“The minors have all self-reported that their parents are back home in Guatemala,” Miller said on X. “But a Democrat judge is refusing to let them reunify with their parents.”

Photo: Bernardo Arévalo de León, President of Guatemala by OEA-OAS found HERE and used under Creative Common Licence. The image has not been modified.