Chiara Eisner
Staffers of the Attorney General's Office take the data of relatives outside of the Returnee Reception Center while waiting for the arrival of minors deported from the United States, at the Guatemalan Air Force Base in Guatemala City on Aug. 31.
A federal judge temporarily blocked the Trump administration from expelling hundreds of Guatemalan children who crossed the U.S. border alone. Although the government had not obtained legal permission to remove the children, some of their lawyers said, Guatemalan children were already loaded on planes on a tarmac while the judge conducted a hearing about the situation on Sunday, a U.S. attorney confirmed.
The temporary halt, issued Sunday afternoon, allows lawyers 14 more days to discuss the case and prevents any children from being removed during the next two weeks.
The children the U.S. intended to remove were under the care of the Department of Health and Human Service's Office of Refugee Resettlement. Since 2002, the Department of Health and Human Services has been required by federal law to shelter and care for children who enter the U.S. without parents or guardians.
