13 hours ago
6
You have a preview view of this article while we are checking your access. When we have confirmed access, the full article content will load.
The ruling came hours after some shelters were directed to prepare children to be sent back to Guatemala. A hearing was scheduled for Sunday afternoon.
Aug. 31, 2025Updated 8:59 a.m. ET
A federal judge temporarily blocked the Trump administration from deporting 10 Guatemalan children back to their home country, and scheduled an emergency hearing on Sunday to determine whether the deportations were legal.
Judge Sparkle L. Sooknanan, of U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, issued the order after the National Immigration Law Center filed an emergency request in federal court to stop the deportations. The lawyers argued that the government had violated the children’s right to due process and had ignored special protections for minors who cross the border alone.
The court forbade the administration from deporting the children, who are between the ages of 10 and 16, for 14 days. An emergency hearing was scheduled for Sunday afternoon.
The order could temporarily hamstring the federal government’s attempts to send back hundreds of other unaccompanied minors whom it said had entered the country illegally from Guatemala.
While the ruling was temporary, it marked the second setback for President Trump’s immigration policies since Friday, when another judge blocked the administration from carrying out rapid deportations far from the border, a cornerstone of the White House’s immigration policy.
The lawsuit was filed after staff members at shelters holding the children were notified by email that they should prepare some children to be sent back to Guatemala. Lawyers representing some of the children received a similar email.
