US judge blocks flights carrying children deportees to Guatemala

The US judge has temporarily blocked Trump administration efforts to deport hundreds of children to Guatemala by issuing the emergency order.

The District Judge Sparkle Sooknanan issued the restraining order on Sunday, August 31, preventing the administration from deporting the 600 unaccompanied children and blocking flights carrying the deportees.

The ruling came on the heels of an emergency request filed by the National Immigration Law Center as according to lawyers these children could be prone to persecution and sexual abuse.

Sooknanan said at the assembled hearing, “I have the government attempting to remove minor children from the country in the wee hours of the morning on a holiday weekend, which is surprising, but here we are.”

The order is expected to be in place for 14 days.

According to Deputy Assistant Attorney General Drew Ensign, all the planes were on the ground in the US except one which returned later after the order.

Efrén C Olivares of the National Immigration Law Center, which filed the suit, issued a statement, “

"In the dead of night on a holiday weekend, the Trump administration ripped vulnerable, frightened children from their beds and attempted to return them to danger in Guatemala. We are heartened that the court prevented this injustice from occurring before hundreds of children suffered irreparable harm."

However, Stephen Miller, the White House immigration advisor, censured the judge for blocking the flights, thwarting the efforts to reunite the children with their parents.

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

Around 600 children reached the US alone and remained in the custody of the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Refugee Resettlement.