A US federal judge on Sunday ordered a temporary stop to Trump Administration plans to send more than 600 unaccompanied children back to Guatemala.
The emergency order, issued by US District Judge Sparkle Sooknanan, came at 4 AM because of exigent circumstances. Attorneys said that 10 children were already on planes, awaiting take-off within four hours. Sooknanan ordered the administration to “cease any ongoing efforts to transfer, repatriate, remove, or otherwise facilitate the transport…from the United States” any of the approximately 600 children for 14 days.
All of the children are unaccompanied minors and as such, according to attorneys, they are protected by the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act (TVPRA) of 2008 . The TVPRA expanded protections for unaccomp