NextFin news, WASHINGTON — On Thursday, September 18, 2025, U.S. District Judge Timothy J. Kelly issued a ruling blocking the Trump administration from deporting more than 600 unaccompanied Guatemalan minors who are currently in U.S. government shelters and foster care. The judge’s decision came after the administration’s Labor Day weekend effort to remove these children from the United States.
The minors, aged between 10 and 17, arrived at the U.S.-Mexico border without parents or guardians. The administration had claimed that the children’s parents in Guatemala requested their return, justifying the deportations. However, Judge Kelly found no evidence supporting this claim, noting that Guatemalan officials could not locate most parents and those found never sought their children’s return.
Judge Kelly’s order emphasized that deporting these children would likely violate the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2008, a federal law designed to protect unaccompanied migrant children from being returned to potentially dangerous conditions without proper legal review and safety assessments.
The legal battle intensified when, on August 31, 2025, 76 children were transported to airports in El Paso and Harlingen, Texas, and boarded planes bound for Guatemala. Emergency legal action halted the flights, and the children were returned to federal custody. Advocates described the children as terrified during the attempted deportations.
The Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Refugee Resettlement oversees the care of unaccompanied minors, housing them in shelters and working to place them with family members or foster homes while their immigration cases proceed.
Advocates for the children submitted whistleblower reports indicating that many of the minors eligible for deportation had been victims of abuse, gang violence, and human trafficking. The court found the government’s justifications for deportation to be misrepresentations of critical facts.
Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin defended the administration’s position, stating the effort was to reunify children with their families, while White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson criticized the court’s intervention as improper.
The Guatemalan government declined to comment on the ruling, describing it as an internal U.S. judicial matter but expressed concern about minors aging out of custody and facing adult detention.
Judge Kelly’s preliminary injunction extends the temporary protection against deportations indefinitely, though the government retains the right to appeal. The ruling does not block deportations of children from other countries but warns that similar actions would likely be unlawful.
Separate temporary restraining orders exist in Arizona and Illinois but cover narrower groups of children, underscoring the significance of the Washington case.
The ruling highlights the complex legal protections for vulnerable migrant children and the judiciary’s role in ensuring enforcement actions comply with federal laws designed to safeguard minors from harm.
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