At age 15, I.B. fled poverty and a father who abused her in Guatemala. She emigrated without her parents to the United States -- like hundreds of children Donald Trump's administration recently tried to deport.

Between October 2024 and August 2025, 28,867 unaccompanied minors entered the United States -- a 70 percent drop from the previous period, according to US Customs and Border Patrol.

Hundreds are Guatemalans from impoverished indigenous communities, as shown by court documents recently obtained by AFP.

I.B. entered the United States in September 2024 and was sent to live with a foster family in Connecticut by the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR), a US government agency that handles cases of unaccompanied minors.

"I had to leave Guatemala because of all my suffering there," a

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