Advocates for Guatemalan Children condemn deportation efforts; Administration responds
EL PASO, Texas (KVIA) -- ABC-7 obtained new documents regarding the legal dispute between the Young Center for Immigrant Children's Rights and the National Immigration Law Center (NILC) against the Trump administration.
"Although these children are supposed to be in the care and custody of the Office of Refugee Resettlement (“ORR”), defendants are unlawfully transferring them to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (“ICE”) custody to put them on flights to Guatemala, where they may face abuse, neglect, persecution, or torture," court documents filed by the Young Center for Immigrant Children's Rights state.
U.S. District Judge Sparkle Sooknanan blocked deportation flights for unaccompanied Guatemalan children on Sunday.
ABC-7 reached out to the Young Center for Immigrant Children's Rights. A spokeswoman said this comes after reports emerged on Friday that the government planned to send more than 600 unaccompanied Guatemalan children in federal custody back to Guatemala before their immigration cases are completed or even started.
"These children are currently in the care of the Department of Health and Human Services, and the plan would force them out of safety and into uncertainty," said Belén Sisa.
"Judge Sparkle Sooknanap is blocking flights to reunify Guatemalan children with their families," said DHS Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs Tricia McLaughlin. "Now these children have to go to shelters; this is disgusting and immoral."
"The Biden judge is effectively kidnapping these migrant children and refusing to let them return home to their parents in their home country," said White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller.
The Young Center for Immigrant Children's Rights claims advocates rapidly deployed to try to prevent children from being taken from federal facilities.
"We witnessed children, some as young as ten years old, abruptly awoken in the middle of the night and ordered to pack their belongings because they were being sent back. Terrified and confused, they desperately tried to recall what little they understood about their cases, what the immigration judges had told them, and understand why this was happening. Their grief was overwhelming; they cried so intensely that many had swollen eyes. One very young girl quietly questioned: “Why do they want to send me back? My mom is dead and my dad abuses me. Why do they want to hurt me?" The staff could not explain what was happening, leaving the children to anxiously question and speculate among themselves for over 6 hours," said Gladys Hernandez, Managing Attorney of the Young Center’s Child Advocate Program in Harlingen, TX.
ABC-7 reached out to ICE in El Paso and to the NILC to learn more about these cases and to learn if any Guatemalan Children were being detained here in El Paso.
