Lawyers challenge to deport hundreds of minors to Guatemala

Immigration rights lawyers demand federal judges Washington, DCOn Wednesday, the Trump administration was blocked from expelling hundreds of Guatemalan minors, believing they may face neglect or persecution at home.

Immigration lawyers say that despite some pending asylum cases or other legal claims that the court has not yet fully reviewed, their clients range from 10 to 17 years old.

Trafficking and immigration laws “prevent unaccompanied children from being whipped under the cover of a whim of darkness in any government.” The lawyer said the minors involved are currently in custody of health and public services and have no legal guardians in the United States.

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The immigration legal team is now seeking a long-term ban to replace an emergency order from Shocknanan on holiday weekends, blocking deportation for up to two weeks. Sooknanan approved the order after learning that more than sixty minors had been transferred from HHS to immigration and customs law enforcement custody and placed it on a Guatemala aircraft.

The case caught the attention because it involved what lawyers said could be the risk of 600 minors being suddenly evacuated from the country, and because Sooknanan, who was originally in charge of the case, imposed an immediate restraining order on the Trump administration to stop the retreat.

Sooknanan’s order came after a controversial verbal order issued by a separate DC judge in March to return the so-called Tren de Aragua gang members to the United States, a Trump administration sees as ambiguous and unbinding. To avoid such disputes, Biden-appointed Sooknanan has no room for explanation.

On Labor Day weekend, Sooknanan issued a quick, clear order to take minors offline and return them to the HHS Refugee Resettlement Office. The judge asked for Ministry of Justice It can be completed every few hours. The Justice Department complied with her order.

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On Labor Day weekend, Guatemalan children were transferred to custody on the ice. (Getty Image)

The lawsuit was filed by ten underage Guatemalan immigrants who resided in the country without a guardian or document. Their attorneys described them in court documents as “vulnerable children” entitled to “enhanced protection and care.” Lawyers say the Trump administration is dismissing past laws and constitutions in order to illegally expel them.

Sooknanan approved the class action, so the case not only covers ten plaintiffs, but all other minors equally covered HHS detention.

After Labor Day, the case was reassigned to Trump-appointed Judge Timothy Kelly. Kelly held a hearing next week on new demands for a preliminary ban on immigration.

Immigration lawyers said they learned from media reports that ICE plans to “approximately” deport them to Guatemala, and that they “could face abuse, neglect, persecution and even torture.”

A woman showed Guatemalan immigrants inside a bus to Guatemalan immigrants after arriving at Guatemalan air base on August 31, 2025. (Johan Ordonez/AFP via Getty Images)

Federal authorities “wake up children at night and suffer trauma from the impending dismissal,” the lawyer wrote in court documents.

“But for the plane sitting on the Texas apron, these children would have been deported to Guatemala,” they said.

A Justice Department lawyer sued the judge at a last-minute hearing on the weekend that the Guatemala government asked young immigrants to return, “All of these children have their parents or guardians in Guatemala to ask them to return.”

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one Department of Homeland Security The spokeswoman called the judge’s initial temporary restrictions “disgusting” and believed that the DHS was just intended to reconnect young immigrants with their parents.

“The Shining Judge [Sooknanan] “Flights to *reunite* Guatemalan children are being stopped. Now, these children must go to shelter. This is disgusting and immoral,” wrote DHS spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin.