U.S. District Court Judge Sparkle L. Sooknanan issued a temporary restraining order blocking President Donald Trump's government from deporting 600 unaccompanied Guatemalan children.
In an emergency ruling on Sunday, Sooknanan said that the temporary restraining order was warranted because plaintiffs "satisfied the four factors governing the issuance of preliminary relief." The order came just hours before the deportations were expected to take place.
A lawsuit filed by the National Immigration Law Center argued that unaccompanied children were exempt from expedited deportation.
"All unaccompanied children — regardless of the circumstances of their arrival to the United States — receive the benefit of full immigration proceedings, including a hearing on claims for relief before an immigration judge," attorneys for the children wrote. "Defendants' actions are thus exposing children to multiple harms in returning them to a country where they fear persecution and by flouting their legal obligations to care for them in the United States."
The Trump administration described the plan as a "first of its kind pilot program."
