A federal judge in Arizona on Thursday temporarily blocked the U.S. government from removing dozens of Guatemalan and Honduran children who arrived in the United States alone and are living in shelters or foster care, extending a restraining order through at least Sept. 26.
U.S. District Judge Rosemary Márquez in Tucson extended a temporary restraining order that was first issued over the Labor Day weekend after attorneys for the children sued to halt repatriation plans. The Arizona lawsuit, filed by the Florence Immigrant & Refugee Rights Project, originally named 57 Guatemalan children and was amended to include 12 Honduran children and four additional Guatemalans who have entered government custody since the initial filing. The minors range in age from 3 to 17.
Attorneys for the children said the minors have expressed fear about returning to Guatemala and Honduras and that repatriation would expose them to risks including neglect, possible child trafficking and hardships related to medical conditions. Laura Belous, an attorney with the Florence Immigrant & Refugee Rights Project, told the court that the children had expressed no desire to be repatriated.
Denise Ann Faulk, an assistant U.S. attorney, emphasized that the proposed repatriations were the result of high-level diplomatic negotiations and that the U.S. was seeking to reunify children with family members at the request of the Guatemalan government. Government lawyers said the repatriations were intended to be voluntary and to avoid lengthy prohibitions on returning to the United States.
Judge Márquez said she was concerned that U.S. officials may not have coordinated with the children’s parents or legal guardians in their home countries. She also questioned whether the government was denying the children the opportunity to be reviewed by an experienced immigration judge and said she found it “frightening” that notifications to legal representatives about planned departures were sometimes provided with little notice, late at night.
"On a practical matter, it just seems that a lot of these things that [the Office of Refugee Resettlement] has taken upon themselves to do — such as screening and making judicial determinations that should be made by an immigration judge with expertise and time to meet with a lawyer and meet with a child — is just surpassed by saying ‘we’re reuniting them’" Márquez said in court.
Most of the children named in the Arizona lawsuit are in the custody of the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Refugee Resettlement and are living at shelters in the Phoenix and Tucson areas. The lawsuit demands that the government allow the children to present their cases before immigration judges, afford them access to legal counsel, and place them in the least restrictive settings consistent with their best interests.
Similar legal actions have been filed in Illinois and Washington, D.C., seeking to stop the government from carrying out the repatriations.
The litigation comes as immigration patterns have shifted in recent years. Children traveling alone began arriving in larger numbers in 2014, and advocates point to a fiscal 2022 peak of 152,060 unaccompanied children entering U.S. custody. Government figures cited in court filings show Guatemalans accounted for roughly 32% of residents at government-run holding facilities last year, followed by children from Honduras, Mexico and El Salvador. Separately, a July enforcement tally referenced by lawyers translated to an annual rate of about 5,712 arrests, a figure officials say reflects border crossings at their lowest levels in six decades.
Government attorneys told the court that Guatemalan officials had toured U.S. detention facilities and communicated their willingness to take children who wished to return voluntarily. Child advocates countered that the government must follow statutory protections designed to ensure that unaccompanied minors receive a fair chance to pursue legal relief in the United States. A 2008 federal law generally requires unaccompanied children from countries other than Mexico and Canada to appear before an immigration judge with an opportunity to pursue asylum or other protections.
The temporary restraining order will remain in effect while the court considers further briefing and arguments. The next procedural deadlines set by Judge Márquez include continued consideration of whether a longer preliminary injunction is warranted and whether the government’s repatriation plans comply with federal requirements that protect unaccompanied children in U.S. custody.