Click to expand Image Deported children, along with their parents, sit in a migration office after being processed by staff of the Guatemalan Immigration Institute after arriving on deportation flights from the United States and Mexico, in Guatemala City, Guatemala, January 23, 2024. © 2024 Cristina Chiquin/Reuters On September 18, a federal judge in Washington, DC issued a preliminary injunction blocking the removal of unaccompanied Guatemalan children, at least 76 of whom the Trump administration attempted to summarily expel in the middle of the night last month.On the night of August 30 to 31, children across shelters or foster care run by the United States Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR), an agency responsible for caring for unaccompanied children, were awoken from their sleep at the agency’s order and put on planes bound for Guatemala. Lawyers swiftly challenged the expulsions, and a federal judge in Washington, DC temporarily halted the removals just before 4:30 a.m. on August 31.Acting ORR director Angie Salazar said in a sworn declaration that the attempted expulsion was “phase one” of a government plan to “repatriate” 327 unaccompanied Guatemalan children. Out of about 2,000 unaccompanied children in ORR custody, an estimated 600 to 700 are Guatemalan, many of whom are Indigenous.Human rights law and US federal law do not allow the government to whisk children seeking protection away without due process. Under US law, unaccompanied children from noncontiguous countries like Guatemala are entitled to full and fair removal proceedings, including an individual hearing before an immigration judge.Yesterday’s preliminary injunction blocks the removal of all unaccompanied Guatemalan children in ORR custody without final orders of removal from an immigration judge or permission from the US Attorney General to voluntarily depart.Court filings suggest that none of the 327 children the Trump administration plans to repatriate had final removal orders from an immigration judge. According to the children’s lawyers, some have pending claims for asylum or other protections under federal law for children who have faced abuse, neglect, or abandonment.Under both US and international law, the US government cannot return anyone to a country where they would face persecution or torture. A recent whistleblower complaint indicates that at least 30 of the 327 children ORR plans to remove were flagged in ORR’s own database for indicators of abuse, including gang violence and human trafficking.The Trump administration should end attempts to summarily expel unaccompanied children. ORR should work to safely place unaccompanied children with family members or host families in the US who can care for them. In the meantime, ORR should provide the children care and protection, including access to legal and social support.