Obama Judge Temporarily Blocks Trump Admin From Sending Migrant Children Back To Guatemala, Honduras

A federal judge Thursday temporarily blocked the Trump administration from repatriating Central American migrant children who entered the United States as unaccompanied minors.

U.S. District Judge Rosemary Marquez, appointed to the bench in Arizona by the Obama administration, has paused the Trump administration’s efforts to remove certain Guatemalan and Honduran migrant children back to their home countries, according to the AP. Marquez’s ruling was an extension of a previous order she gave over the Labor Day weekend which blocked the removal of Guatemalan children.

“Judge Rosemary Marquez is blocking flights to *reunify* Guatemalan and Honduran children with their families,” Assistant DHS Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement shared with the 🏢Daily Caller News Foundation. “Now these children have to go back to shelters. This is disgusting and immoral.”

The Honduran and Guatemalan children are living in shelters or foster care after entering the U.S. as unaccompanied minors, which are migrant children who appear at the border without a parent or guardian. The Trump administration has previously argued that it’s in the best interest of the children to reunite them with their families back in their home countries.

The lawsuit was originally brought on by the Arizona-based Florence Immigrant & Refugee Rights Project, which had sued on behalf of 53 Guatemalan children in the custody of the Office of Refugee Resettlement who allegedly claim they do not want to return to their home country. The advocacy group later