It began with a pair of notices from the Trump administration and then a flood of messages and calls among attorneys and child advocates: Guatemalan children in US government custody were being moved in the middle of the night to be sent back to their home country.
Late Saturday and into the early morning hours of Sunday, staff at shelters woke children up — some of them crying or vomiting in fear, legal filings say — to prepare them to fly back to their home country. Shelter providers were directed to collect personal belongings and any necessary medications, as well as two prepared sack lunches. Attorneys, meanwhile, were advised their clients were going to be removed from the country.
The South Texas Pro Bono Asylum Representation Project (ProBAR), which provides legal services at nearly two dozen shelters for migrant kids, immediately deployed staff to facilities.
“At all of the shelters visited in the middle of the night, ProBAR staff witnessed children who had been pulled out of their beds. They were confused and scared,” said Lauren Fisher Flores, legal director of ProBAR, in a declaration submitted Wednesday as part of an ongoing lawsuit against the administration’s attempt to repatriate Guatemalan kids.
Seventy-six children were prepared for repatriation, placed on planes for departure then abruptly returned to US custody after a federal judge temporarily blocked their removals.
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