Immigrant children recalled getting awakened in the middle of the night and frantically informed of a possible deportation in a court filing contesting the Trump administration’s attempts to remove them this past weekend. “I woke up very scared, and I felt like I lost my breath for a second because they had never woken us up in the middle of the night before,” one child said in the Wednesday filing. The child said they hadn’t had the chance to brush their teeth or wash their face before they were put on a bus to the airport. Another child vomited out of fear, according to the filing. A third child was crying and distraught about the possibility of returning to Guatemala, from which she had previously immigrated.The filing features harrowing accounts of children being abruptly jostled awake between the hours of 2 to 4 a.m. and yanked from their beds, as well as testimony which suggests that they — and their families — aren’t trying to reunite in Guatemala as the Trump administration has previously alleged. A DHS spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The filing comes as the administration attempted to deport dozens of unaccompanied minors to Guatemala in the early hours of Sunday morning, a move that’s been blocked by a district court judge for at least two weeks. During that attempted deportation, one flight had left for Guatemala but was turned back. The National Immigration Law Center (NILC), which is representing some of the children, has argued that the attempted deportation was a violation of the legal protections they have, as their cases are still being processed. None of the children — many of whom are seeking asylum — have a final order for removal, NILC President Kica Matos told PBS on Monday. The children had previously entered the U.S. without a guardian and without authorization. They were placed in the custody of the Department of Health and Human Services, which is responsible for providing shelter. HHS currently oversees about 2,000 unaccompanied minors who have entered the U.S. in this way. The lawsuit was filed on behalf of 10 minors identified by their initials in the filings. The Trump administration, meanwhile, has said that it’s trying to repatriate children to Guatemala so they can be reunited with their families. The Guatemalan government has also said it would welcome these children back to the country and that it wanted to prevent kids from having to deal with the abysmal conditions in ICE detention once they turn 18. Children and parents’ accounts in the filing, however, dispute this notion. Multiple children expressed “fear” about potentially returning to Guatemala, citing abuse and neglect they had endured as well as threats from gang members. “If I am sent back, I will not be able to live safely. My mother did not request my return to Guatemala, she fears for my safety there,” one remarked. Similarly, parents spoke out about how they were not pursuing family reunification and supported their children’s efforts to stay in the U.S. “The person asked us in Spanish whether we would be able to receive [my daughter] back. We told the person that [my daughter] was going to school in the United States and that she has an attorney there,” one father of a plaintiff said. “We were very surprised to receive this call. I was alarmed and extremely worried about my daughter after receiving this call.”The administration’s attempts to deport these children come as it continues to crack down on immigrants including rolling back legal protections and targeting undocumented people.Close