Overview

• U.S. District Judge Sparkle Sooknanan issued a temporary restraining order broadly barring removals of Guatemalan unaccompanied children who lack deportation orders.
• Justice Department officials said children who had been boarded on planes in Texas were deplaned and returned to Health and Human Services’ Office of Refugee Resettlement custody.
• The emergency lawsuit, filed by the National Immigration Law Center and the Young Center for Immigrant Children's Rights on behalf of 10 children ages 10 to 17, argues federal law guarantees hearings before removal.
• Administration lawyers describe the operation as repatriations to reunite children with relatives in Guatemala, a characterization plaintiffs dispute in specific cases and under the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act.
• Officials and advocates say the plan identified roughly 600 to 700 Guatemalan children for flights, and the court set expedited proceedings to determine whether the pilot can continue.