Children from Guatemala dealing with the emotional turmoil following unsuccessful attempts at deportations

In a recent turn of events, unaccompanied Guatemalan children in the United States are facing the prospect of deportation, sparking a legal battle between immigration authorities and advocates fighting for their rights.

The organization spearheading the petition to halt these deportations remains unidentified in search results. However, the focus of the petition is clear: to protect children who have fled difficult circumstances, some of whom are orphans, others who have been persecuted, abandoned, trafficked, or sold, and all of whom have experienced significant ongoing trauma.

One such child is A.J.D.E., a teenager who fled Guatemala last year following his sister's murder. Fearful of returning due to the risk of being killed, A.J.D.E. was awoken in the middle of the night on Saturday from a Texas shelter, informed that he would be returned to Guatemala.

A.J.D.E. is not alone. Court records show that at least 76 minors were placed on planes bound for Guatemala, only for those flights to be grounded. The federal government is estimated to intend to remove up to 700 unaccompanied Guatemalan children from the U.S.

The Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2008 mandates that children in federal custody must be placed in the "least restrictive setting possible" throughout their immigration proceedings and establishes protocols for safe repatriations and family reunifications. Legal advocates, however, dispute that the attempted removals of these children were "repatriations" and not attempted deportations.

The International Rescue Committee is representing three unaccompanied Guatemalan teenage girls in Texas who were pulled away from their foster homes in the middle of the night and put on a bus. These girls, like A.J.D.E., describe fearing gang recruitment, violence from relatives, criminal organizations, and even the Guatemalan government in their home country.

One of the girls represented by the International Rescue Committee is Mayan, the largest Indigenous group in Guatemala. All of the girls were sad to be pulled away from their foster homes, kept for over 12 hours before being returned to an ORR facility without the ability to say goodbye to their original foster families.

This is not an isolated incident. Thirteen other declarations from Guatemalan teens, most of whom are 16 and 17, were filed in court as part of an ongoing legal challenge. Another judge in Arizona blocked the removals of 53 other Guatemalan minors in the state last week. Court declarations and accounts from organizations providing legal immigration services to the children show that minors in ORR custody across at least eight states are at risk of being removed under these circumstances.

The attempted removals of these unaccompanied Guatemalan children are part of an agreement reached between the U.S. and Guatemalan governments. However, the legal battle continues as advocates fight to ensure the safety and wellbeing of these vulnerable children.

Children from Guatemala dealing with the emotional turmoil following unsuccessful attempts at deportations