HARLINGEN, Texas (Border Report) — The lead lawyer in a lawsuit to stop unaccompanied Guatemalan children from being deported from the United States describes how dozens of children were loaded onto planes and readied for removal to their home country from South Texas.
Efrén Olivares, of the National Immigration Law Center, joins Border Report Live on this episode where he talks about their lawsuit that has temporarily blocked deportation of upwards of 600 children who crossed the U.S. border without a parent or guardian seeking asylum or refuge.
Originally, the lawsuit was filed for 10 children against Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and other federal government officials.
But as the case unfolded it has come to represent hundreds more children the Trump administration wants to deport.
Olivares tells Border Report’s South Texas Correspondent Sandra Sanchez about how dozens of children were awaken in the middle of the night during Labor Day weekend and told to pack because they were being deported.
Some were flown to South Texas from Health and Human Services shelters throughout the country. Two planes were loaded with children — one even taxied away from the gate at Valley International Airport in Harlingen — before a federal judge stopped the takeoffs.
The judge in Washington, D.C., has since expanded the group to prevent the deportation of about 600 children from Guatemala from being deported while the case is being heard. This includes those who do not have removal orders by an immigration court, or have not signed voluntary departure agreements.
But some children have aged up and are no longer covered, Olivares says. Learn what could happen to them in this latest episode of Border Report Live.
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