HARLINGEN, Texas — A U.S. judge temporarily blocked the government Sunday from deporting a group of Guatemalan children who crossed the border without their families, after their lawyers said the youngsters were loaded onto planes overnight in violation of laws affording protections for migrant kids.

Attorneys for 10 Guatemalan minors, ages 10 to 17, said in court papers filed late Saturday that there were reports that planes were set to take off within hours for the Central American country. But a federal judge in Washington said those children couldn't be deported for at least 14 days, and after a hastily scheduled hearing Sunday, she enforced that they needed to be taken off the planes and returned to the Office of Refugee Resettlement facilities while the legal process plays out.

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