A federal decide on Thursday blocked the Trump administration’s plans to ship unaccompanied Guatemalan youngsters again to their residence nation, writing that the federal government’s insistence that it got here at dad and mom’ request “crumbled like a house of cards.”
Immigration attorneys raced to court docket in the midst of the night time because the administration took steps to swiftly ship again a bunch of Guatemalan migrant youngsters over Labor Day weekend.
The federal decide on emergency obligation briefly halted the deportations. The case was then assigned completely to U.S. District Decide Timothy Kelly, whose new ruling Thursday indefinitely blocks the deportations because the case strikes ahead.
Nominated to the bench by President Trump, Kelly mentioned the administration’s plans seemingly violate the Trafficking Victims Safety Reauthorization Act (TVPRA), a 2008 legislation that sought to handle considerations about unaccompanied migrant youngsters within the authorities’s custody.
“While Defendants plunged ahead in the middle of the night with their ‘reunification’ plan and then represented to a judge that a parent or guardian had requested each child’s return, that turned out not to be true,” Kelly wrote. “Such a rushed, seemingly error-laden operation to send unaccompanied alien children back to their home countries is one of the things that the TVPRA’s process prevents,” he continued.
The Hill has reached out to the Division of Homeland Safety for remark.
In court docket, the administration contended the deportations could be lawful and that the decide had no authority to intervene.
“This case is uncomplicated, both legally and morally: where possible, unaccompanied alien children should be reunited with their parents or guardians. Their continued separation is a tragedy to be cured, not prolonged as Plaintiffs request classwide, regardless of a specific child’s best interest,” the Justice Division wrote in court docket filings.
The go well with was filed by the Younger Middle for Immigrant Kids’s Rights and 10 Guatemalan unaccompanied minors aged 10 to 17 going through deportation. They’re represented by the Nationwide Immigration Regulation Middle.
“Today’s court decision is a significant victory for the hundreds of children who are now safe from the Trump administration’s unlawful attempt to expel them from the United States,” Efrén Olivares, the legislation heart’s vp of litigation and authorized technique, mentioned in a press release.
“The court saw through the government’s repeated misrepresentations of critical facts to try to justify the indefensible targeting of vulnerable children who would have faced danger if sent to other countries,” Olivares continued. “This decision should send a clear message to the administration that they have no legal authority to circumvent the law to expel unaccompanied children without due process. As this litigation proceeds, we are determined to continue fighting and advocating for the best interests of all immigrant children.”
Kelly’s order blocks the administration from deporting the youngsters or another unaccompanied Guatemalan minor who has acquired neither a last elimination order nor permission from the lawyer common to voluntarily depart from the USA.
Although a loss for the administration, the order is narrower than plaintiffs’ ask. Their proposal would’ve lined unaccompanied minors going through deportation from all different international locations besides Canada or Mexico, that are handled in a different way beneath the TVPRA.
“There may be a better policy solution to this difficult, complex issue than what law requires,” Kelly wrote. “But a ‘policy disagreement with Congress,’ of course, is no license for the Executive ‘to ignore statutory mandates.’”
Up to date at 12:42 p.m. EDT
