A federal district judge blocked the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on Aug. 31 from deporting a group of unaccompanied Guatemalan children.

The temporary restraining order by District Judge Sparkle Sooknanan of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia was issued at about 4 a.m. on Aug. 31. The class action is known as L.G.M.L. v. Noem.

Sooknanan’s order states that the government may not remove “any of the individual Plaintiffs from the United States for 14 days absent further Order of the Court.”

The order states that the “exigent circumstances” laid out in the legal complaint justified prompt action “to maintain the status quo until a hearing can be set.”

The legal complaint, filed mere hours before the order was issued, was filed on behalf of 10 unaccompanied minors from Guatemala whom DHS wants to remove from the United States. Their removal is “in clear violation of the unambiguous protections that Congress has provided them as vulnerable children,” the complaint says.

The plaintiffs are involved in “active proceedings before immigration courts across the country, yet [DHS plans] to remove them in violation of the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2008, the Immigration and Nationality Act, and the Constitution.”

The Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act provides that unaccompanied minors from the contiguous countries of Mexico and Canada who are present in the United States may be returned to their home countries if they meet certain criteria. The minors must be determined not to be victims of human trafficking and not to have a fear of returning to their home countries.

The statute provides that unaccompanied children from non-contiguous countries, such as Guatemala, should be treated differently. Such children must be placed with the Office of Refugee Resettlement, which is part of the Department of Health and Human Services, and put in standard removal proceedings if they are found to be victims of human trafficking or fear returning to their home country.

The plaintiffs took action after media outlets reported on Aug. 29 that DHS was planning “to imminently remove hundreds of Guatemalan unaccompanied minors to Guatemala.”

The complaint says federal law requires that unaccompanied minors be placed in the custody of the Office of Refugee Resettlement, and they can only be removed from the country in specific situations.

“[DHS is] imminently planning to illegally transfer Plaintiffs to Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody to put them on flights to Guatemala, where they may face abuse, neglect, persecution, or even torture, against their best interests,” it reads.

DHS has identified more than 600 children from Guatemala whom it may deport as part of “a first of its kind pilot program through an agreement negotiated with the Guatemalan government,” the complaint says.

On Aug. 29, Guatemalan Foreign Minister Carlos Martinez said his government informed U.S. authorities that it is willing to accept hundreds of Guatemalan minors who came to the United States unaccompanied and are now being detained in U.S. facilities. Martinez said his government is concerned that the minors could age out of the facilities and then be transferred to adult detention facilities.

DHS Secretary Kristi Noem visited Guatemala last week as part of a three-day mission to Central America. On Aug. 27, Noem said Guatemala and Honduras signed agreements that will permit those seeking asylum in the United States to apply for refuge in those nations instead.

The U.S. government has not given the plaintiffs notice of its plan to remove them, nor has it provided an opportunity to challenge their removal. Instead, DHS has “simply removed minors’ pending cases from the immigration court docket in preparation for their summary removal,” the complaint says.

At a midday hearing on Aug. 31, Sooknanan left her earlier temporary restraining order in place.

The government must “cease any ongoing efforts to transfer, repatriate, remove, or otherwise facilitate the transport of any Plaintiff or member of the putative class from the United States,” she said in an order time-stamped 12:37 p.m.

Federal and state court rules govern whether a class action gets certified and is allowed to proceed. Until a class is certified, the members are referred to as putative members of the class.

The putative class in this case includes all Guatemalan unaccompanied minors in the custody of the Office of Refugee Resettlement as of 1:02 a.m. on Aug. 31, which is when the legal complaint was filed. The court’s protection does not extend to those who are already “subject to an executable final order of removal,” the judge said.

At about 3 p.m. on Aug. 31, Sooknanan issued a separate order requiring the DHS to advise the court at 4 p.m. if putative class members had been taken off airplanes that were to be used for deportation.

“If all class members have not been deplaned and moved back to the custody of [Office of Refugee Resettlement] by that time, the Defendants should advise when they expect that to occur,” she said.

Deputy Assistant Attorney General Drew Ensign filed a status report with the court later the same day, saying that “all of the class members that were on planes today have been deplaned and are in the process of being returned to [Office of Refugee Resettlement] custody.”

The Epoch Times reached out to the Department of Justice for comment but received no response by publication time.

Aldgra Fredly and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

This article by Matthew Vadum appeared Aug. 31, 2025, in The Epoch Times.