Background on the Case and Key Players
On September 10, a federal judge in Washington D.C., Timothy Kelly, appointed by President Donald Trump, extended a temporary halt to the U.S. government’s attempts to deport unaccompanied Guatemalan children with active immigration cases. The judge granted more time to consider the dispute, freezing the policy until Tuesday.
The Controversy
This situation arose from the Trump administration’s sudden attempt to deport 76 unaccompanied Guatemalan children on August 31. The children were awakened during a holiday weekend, rushed onto planes, and only prevented from being deported due to an emergency court order.
During a hearing on September 10, Drew Ensign from the Department of Justice claimed that parents had requested the deportations. However, two days later, Reuters reported that Guatemala’s Attorney General’s office stated that most of the 600 children’s parents couldn’t be located, and of the 115 found, many did not want their children returned to Guatemala.
Guatemalan Authorities’ Perspective
Judge Kelly referenced this report during the September 10 hearing, leading another Department of Justice attorney to withdraw Ensign’s previous statement. Lucrecia Prera, Director of Guatemala’s Procuraduría de la Niñez y la Adolescencia, explained that Guatemalan authorities usually receive one or two unaccompanied minors daily from Mexico or the U.S., but had never been asked to accept 100 at once.
The majority of children the U.S. aims to deport come from Huehuetenango, San Marcos, Quiché, and Alta Verapaz. These regions are predominantly indigenous with agricultural communities facing high rates of malnutrition and poverty.
Prera mentioned that some families had mortgaged their homes to fund their children’s journey to the U.S.
Key Questions and Answers
- Who are the children involved? The children are unaccompanied minors from Guatemala, primarily from Huehuetenango, San Marcos, Quiché, and Alta Verapaz.
- What is the controversy about? The Trump administration attempted to deport these children without proper consultation with their families, leading to a court-imposed halt.
- Why are these regions significant? These Guatemalan regions have a majority indigenous population and face high levels of malnutrition and poverty.
- What are the families’ circumstances? Some families have resorted to mortgaging their homes to pay for their children’s journey to the U.S.
