Judge Blocks Sending Children Back to Guatemala

A federal judge ordered an emergency stop to a Trump administration plan to send more than 600 unaccompanied Guatemalan children back to their home country after immigrant advocacy groups sued, Politico reported Sunday

U.S. District Judge Sparkle Sooknanan, a Biden appointee, issued the order shortly after 4 a.m. Sunday, stating that the “exigent circumstances” described in the lawsuit warranted immediate action “to maintain the status quo until a hearing can be set.”

Sooknanan at first scheduled a hearing on the matter for 3 p.m. Sunday, then moved it up to 12:30 p.m. after being told that some minors covered by the suit were “in the process of being removed from the United States.”