Guatemala is ready and willing to receive some 150 unaccompanied minors per week of all ages from the United States, President Bernardo Arevalo said on Monday, a day after a US federal judge halted the deportation of 10 Guatemalan children.
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US President Donald Trump’s administration said in a court filing on Monday that the 10 children, who had been boarded on to planes when the court responded to an emergency predawn appeal, had since been returned to shelters run by the Office of Refugee Resettlement.
Arevalo told journalists in Guatemala City that his government has been coordinating with the US to receive the unaccompanied minors.
“But the decision to send them, the number, and the pace is one that rests with the American government, and as you can see, there’s currently a legal dispute,” he said.
Lawyers for the children, aged 10 to 17, argued in court filings that the deportations would be a “clear violation of the unambiguous protections that Congress has provided them as vulnerable children”. They also said the children could face peril and abuse if they were returned to Guatemala.
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District Judge Sparkle Sooknanan’s order halting the deportation of the children applies for 14 days while the case is pending. It covers potentially hundreds of unaccompanied Guatemalan minors who have been in US custody after crossing the southern border.