The E. Barrett Prettyman U.S. Courthouse in Washington, D.C., home of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, pictured on July 14, 2025. (Photo by Jacob Fischler/States Newsroom) 

WASHINGTON — A federal judge Thursday barred the Trump administration from deporting unaccompanied children to Guatemala, finding that the administration’s claim of reuniting the children with their parents there “crumbled like a house of cards.”  

District of Columbia Judge Timothy Kelly issued a preliminary injunction to extend last month’s temporary block to prevent the rapid removal of hundreds of Guatemalan children, who were woken in the middle of the night and rushed onto deportation planes over Labor Day weekend.

Kelly, whom President Donald Trump appointed in 2017, rejected the Trump administration’s argument that the move was to reunite the children at the request of their parents, a claim that Department of Justice attorneys walked back during last week’s hearing.

“But that explanation crumbled like a house of cards about a week later,” he wrote in his opinion. “There is no evidence before the Court that the parents of these children sought their return.”

Advocates and immigration attorneys for the children rushed to file an emergency block in the middle of the night of Labor Day weekend, which narrowly prevented the removal of 10 Guatemalan children, ages 10 to 17. But hundreds of Guatemalan children would have been removed if not for the temporary restraining order.

600 children identified for removal

Attorneys from the The National Immigration Law Center, which brought the suit, tried to include the class certification to also apply to children from Honduras, but Kelly narrowed the class to only apply to children from Guatemala. 

The Trump administration has identified up to 600 Guatemalan children in the Office of Refugee Resettlement custody and foster care to be removed, according to the court filings. 

Separately, a federal judge in Arizona issued a temporary restraining order until Sept. 26 to bar the Trump administration from removing Honduran and Guatemalan children in federal custody and foster care from being removed from the United States.

The National Immigration Law Center’s Efrén C. Olivares, lead attorney on the District of Columbia case, said in a statement that it’s a relief that “hundreds of children … are now safe from the Trump administration’s unlawful attempt to expel them from the United States.” 

“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,” he said.

A DOJ record ‘barren of evidence’

Kelly criticized the Trump administration for its claim that the parents of the Guatemalan children had requested they be returned to their home country. 

“In any event, the record here is barren of evidence that any child in the proposed class wants to return to Guatemala, even if their parents can be found,” he wrote.

He added that such a move violated the William Wilberforce Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2008.

“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.”

In court declarations, many of the parents said they were unaware their children were being returned. One parent, referred to as B.M.R.P., asked for her daughter to remain in the U.S. for her safety.

“I think she is in danger if she does return to Guatemala,” B.M.R.P. said. “All I ask is that you help my daughter stay safe – help her stay safe by not returning her to Guatemala.”

Attorneys for the children argued that if they were returned to Guatemala, they could face violence and the Trump administration’s move to deport them violated immigration procedures for unaccompanied minors. 

Congress has carved out special legal protections for immigrant children, such as the 2008 TVPRA law that requires minors be placed in immigration proceedings and have access to legal counsel.