Guatemala is ready and willing to receive about 150 unaccompanied children of all ages each week from the United States, the country’s president has said, a day after a U.S. federal judge halted the deportation of 10 Guatemalan children.
On Monday, Guatemala’s president, Bernardo Arévalo, told journalists that his government had been coordinating with the U.S. to receive the unaccompanied minors.
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.
District judge Sparkle Sooknanan’s order halting 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 U.S. custody after crossing the southern border.
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