“The minors have all self-reported that their parents are back home in Guatemala,” Miller wrote on X. “But a Democrat judge is refusing to let them reunify with their parents.”
The US Department of Homeland Security, ICE’s parent agency, and HHS did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Guatemala’s foreign ministry declined to comment.
‘CLEAR VIOLATION’
Within the HHS Office of Refugee Resettlement, which cares for unaccompanied children until they can be placed with US sponsors, signs of the new deportation effort emerged last week.
Melissa Johnston, director of the HHS’ unaccompanied children program, sent an email to staff prohibiting the US release of Guatemalan children in federal custody except for those sponsored by parents or legal guardians in the country, according to a copy reviewed by Reuters.
In their complaint on Sunday, the National Immigration Law Center and Young Center for Immigrant Children’s Rights said the deportations would be a “clear violation of the unambiguous protections that Congress has provided them as vulnerable children”.
The complaint said that in Guatemala, the children “may face abuse, neglect, persecution, or even torture, against their best interests”.
Among the plaintiffs was a 10-year-old indigenous Guatemalan girl whose mother had died and who had suffered abuse and neglect from other caretakers, the complaint said. The girl was detained at a US government shelter in South Texas, the complaint said.
Several of the 10 plaintiffs had expressed fear of returning to Guatemala, the complaint said. The children have been in shelters or foster care in California, Texas, Pennsylvania and New York, it said.
