Judge Blocks Flights, Keeps Guatemalan Children in U.S. Amid Deportation Push
On Sunday, a federal judge intervened to stop the sudden deportation of dozens of Guatemalan children who had been placed on planes in Texas, bound for Guatemala.
The children, some as young as 10, were pulled from government shelters in the middle of the night and bused to Valley International Airport in Harlingen, Texas.
U.S. District Judge Sparkle L. Sooknanan, awakened at 2:30 a.m. to address the emergency filing, temporarily blocked the flights. She emphasized that without the court’s intervention, the children “would have been returned to Guatemala, potentially to very dangerous situations.”
Attorneys for the children argued that the government was bypassing legal protections guaranteed to migrant children.
Court filings revealed harrowing stories: a 10-year-old with no family to care for him in Guatemala, a 16-year-old who faced threats against her life, and another child dependent on dialysis who cannot survive without specialized medical care in the U.S.
Despite government claims that the flights were meant to reunite children with their families, lawyers said many were being sent back to unsafe conditions with little or no due process.
The halted flights echoed earlier confrontations between the administration’s immigration enforcement and the legal safeguards designed to protect vulnerable migrants. More than 700 Guatemalan children remain at the center of this unfolding legal battle.
Every child has the right to safety, dignity, and protection from being returned to places where they face abuse, neglect, or violence.
