Guatemala, Sept. 1 (Reuters) – Guatemala is ready and willing to welcome 150 accompanist minors of all ages from the United States, President Bernardo Alevaro said Monday a day after a US federal judge stopped deporting 10 Guatemala children.
US President Donald Trump’s administration in a court filing said 10 children on the plane when the court responded to an appeal before dawn have since been returned to shelter operated by the Refugee Resettlement Bureau.
Arevalo told a Guatemala city journalist that his government is coordinating with the US to receive unaccompanied minors.
“But the decision, the number and the pace to send them depends on the US government and there is a legal dispute now, as you can see,” he said.
In a court application, lawyers for children ages 10 to 17 alleged that deportation was a “clear violation of the clear protections that Congress provided them as vulnerable children.” They also said that if the children were returned to Guatemala, they could face danger and abuse.
The order of District Judge Sparkle Sooknanan’s halt of deportation of children will apply for 14 days, but the case is pending. It potentially covers hundreds of unaccompanied Guatemalan minors who were in US custody after crossing the southern border.
Trump, a Republican, returned to the White House in January on a promise to deport more immigrants than his predecessors. The court found that at least in part of his accelerated deportation efforts violated his constitutional right to a legitimate process.
Children are often entitled to the US, where they are not accompanied by parents or guardians, staying with relatives already in the country, and are entitled to enhance protections while asylum and other immigration claims are being processed.
(Reporting by Sofia Menchu, Additional Reports by Jonathan Allen of New York, Written by Brendan O’Boyle and Emily Green, Edited by Edmund Kraman)
