Migrant children were already seated on charter flights in Texas when a federal judge ordered the planes to stay put, pausing a mass return to Guatemala and giving lawyers time to argue that the expulsions violate U.S. law and could endanger vulnerable minors.
The episode unfolded over a holiday weekend, stretching from Harlingen’s Valley International Airport to a federal courtroom in Washington and underscoring the tension between aggressive immigration enforcement and legal protections for unaccompanied youth. Officials had begun boarding the youngsters when U.S. District Judge Sparkle L. Sooknanan intervened. “I do not want there to be any ambiguity,” she said at a hastily convened hearing, adding that her order applies to all unaccompanied Guatemalan minors. Observers at the airport saw buses unloading children onto a waiting aircraft in a restricted area used for deportation flights.
The government says it is reuniting the children with parents or guardians who requested their return. Lawyers contest that and note that federal law requires hearings before unaccompanied children from countries other than Mexico can be removed. A 16‑year‑old honors student living in a New York shelter said she is “deeply afraid of being deported” and her parents were surprised to hear she was to be sent back.
Other declarations highlight the stakes. A 10‑year‑old said he has no caretaker in Guatemala, while another 16‑year‑old wrote that he faced “threats against my life” at home and fears being returned. An Arizona lawsuit describes a 12‑year‑old asylum seeker with kidney disease and two siblings, ages ten and three, who lack family in Guatemala.
In Guatemala City, relatives prepared for flights. Gilberto López drove overnight from a rural town after his 17‑year‑old nephew called to say he was being deported; the nephew left home at 15 to work in the United States and was detained last month.
Ordinarily, unaccompanied minors are placed with the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Refugee Resettlement and remain in shelters or foster homes until they turn 18 or a relative in the United States can take custody. Recently, Homeland Security Investigations agents questioned Guatemalan youths in these facilities about relatives back home. On Friday, some children’s immigration court hearings were abruptly canceled, and advocates later learned that officials had compiled a list of minors to be placed on flights from Harlingen and El Paso.
During a Sunday hearing, government lawyer Drew Ensign acknowledged that flights were prepared but said all planes remained on U.S. soil; he believed one plane may have taken off and returned. He agreed that the children would be taken off the aircraft and sent back to resettlement custody. Federal agencies did not comment, though White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller later claimed Guatemala requested the repatriations and accused the judge of keeping families apart.
Sooknanan said she was awakened around 2:30 a.m. by an emergency filing warning that planes could depart within hours. “I have the government attempting to remove unaccompanied minors from the country in the wee hours of the morning on a holiday weekend, which is surprising,” she told the hearing, adding that without court action the children “would have been returned to Guatemala, potentially to very dangerous situations”. She issued a two‑week restraining order, calling it extraordinary but necessary.
The order halts a plan to return nearly 700 unaccompanied Guatemalan children, according to a letter from Senator Ron Wyden that Guatemalan officials confirmed. Advocates argue that moving minors from refugee shelters to immigration custody without letting them pursue asylum or other protections deprives them of due process. Officials counter that the law allows reunification with parents abroad.
As lawsuits continue in multiple courts, the children will remain in U.S. shelters. Guatemalan authorities say they are ready to receive them, but human rights lawyers warn that premature removals could expose them to harm. The outcome could set a precedent for future deportation efforts against unaccompanied minors.
