Guatemala ready to receive deported minors from the U.S.

Guatemalan President Bernardo Arevalo has said his country is prepared to receive around 150 unaccompanied minors per week deported from the U.S. The announcement came a day after a U.S. federal judge blocked the deportation of 10 Guatemalan children.

The U.S. administration stated in a court filing that the 10 children, whose deportation had been halted following an emergency pre-dawn appeal, have since been returned to shelters managed by the Office of Refugee Resettlement.

Speaking in Guatemala City, Arevalo told journalists that his government has been coordinating with U.S. authorities to receive the unaccompanied minors.

“But the decision to send them, their number, and the pace of deportations rests with the U.S. government, and as you can see, there is currently a legal dispute,” he said.

Lawyers representing the children, aged 10 to 17, argued in court that the deportations would violate protections provided by Congress for vulnerable children. They also warned that the children could face danger and abuse if returned to Guatemala.

District Judge Sparkle Sooknanan’s order halting the deportations is in effect for 14 days while the case is pending and covers potentially hundreds of unaccompanied Guatemalan minors in U.S. custody after crossing the southern border.

President Donald Trump, a Republican, returned to the White House in January partly on a promise to deport more migrants than his predecessors. Courts have found that some of his accelerated deportation measures violate constitutional rights to due process.

The children crossed into the U.S. without parents or guardians, often to join relatives already in the country, and are entitled by law to heightened protections while their asylum and other immigration claims are processed.

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