President Donald Trump in the Oval Office, Friday, Sept. 5, 2025. Alex Brandon/AP
A federal judge appointed by President Donald Trump blocked his administration from deporting Guatemalan children after an attempted late-night operation to place dozens on flights out of the United States.
Judge Timothy J. Kelly issued a preliminary injunction halting the plan, which federal officials had described as a “reunification” effort. But Kelly ruled that the defence “crumbled like a house of cards” once examined.
Evidence from Guatemala’s attorney general showed parents of more than 600 minors had not requested their children’s return, and government lawyers admitted they could not contest that finding.
The case erupted over Labor Day weekend when authorities roused about 70 minors, aged 10 to 17, from their beds in shelters, put them on buses, and moved them toward planes bound for Guatemala.
The ruling details how some children described being terrified — one girl “so scared that she vomited,” another saying he felt like he “lost [his] breath.” Attorneys raced to court at 1 a.m. ET, where Judge Sparkle Sooknanan issued an emergency order grounding the flights. Kelly’s ruling extends that protection indefinitely.
Declarations from the children underscored why they resisted removal. Several feared violent gangs, neglect, or even death if sent back.
“It goes without saying that makes that irreparable harm,” Kelly observed.
Lawyers argued that some minors still had pending asylum claims or other rights that had not been adjudicated, warning that US law does not allow children to be “whisked off under cover of darkness at the whim of any government.”
Trump officials had lashed out at the court earlier, with a DHS spokeswoman calling Sooknanan’s order “disgusting and immoral.” But Kelly, a Trump appointee, concluded the administration’s plan likely violated federal trafficking and immigration statutes in a striking rebuke of the president’s own hardline agenda.
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