A Trinidad-born U.S. federal judge has blocked an attempt by the Trump administration to deport unaccompanied Guatemalan children, halting flights that were already preparing to take off over the holiday weekend.
On August 31, U.S. District Judge Sparkle L. Sooknanan, who was born in San Fernando, Trinidad and Tobago, issued a temporary restraining order preventing the deportation of 10 unaccompanied minors, ages 10 to 17, and potentially hundreds more in federal custody. The ruling came after the National Immigration Law Center filed an emergency request, arguing that the government was bypassing legal safeguards for migrant children. The order will remain in effect for 14 days.
“I do not want there to be any ambiguity,” Sooknanan said during the hastily scheduled hearing in Washington, D.C.
The decision immediately stopped deportation flights from Valley International Airport in Harlingen, Texas, a major hub for removals. Minutes after the ruling, five charter buses that had brought dozens of children to a waiting plane were ordered to return. The Justice Department later confirmed that all 76 children who had been prepared for deportation would be returned to shelters overseen by the Department of Health and Human Services.
“This idea that on a long weekend in the dead of night they would wake up these vulnerable children and put them on a plane irrespective of the constitutional protections that they had is something that should shock the conscience of all Americans,” said Kica Matos, president of the National Immigration Law Center.
By law, unaccompanied minors who cross into the U.S. are placed in government-run shelters until they can be reunited with family or placed in foster care. The Trump administration had sought to expedite deportations, claiming the removals were being done at Guatemala’s request to reunite children with parents or guardians. Lawyers for the children disputed that claim, insisting that authorities must follow due process.
The Government of Guatemala has issued a statement emphasizing its role in safeguarding the children while respecting legal protocols. “With the purpose of preventing a vulnerable group of adolescents in shelters and close to reaching the age of majority from being sent to detention centers in the United States, the Government of Guatemala is strengthening coordinated actions to contribute to family reunification in Guatemala, once they have fulfilled their due process in that country,” the statement reads.
It adds that Guatemala has been working closely with U.S. authorities to ensure that returning children are received safely and in accordance with established protocols, and that institutional support and legal representation will be provided to address their psychosocial and family reunification needs. “The Government of Guatemala has promoted these actions to be framed within the full respect for human rights and compliance with due process. It also assumes responsibility for the protection and well-being of this group of people in vulnerable situations.”
Judge Sooknanan, an alumna of Naparima Girls’ High School, has built a distinguished career in law. She earned degrees from St. Francis College, Hofstra University, and Brooklyn Law School before clerking for Judge Eric N. Vitaliano, Judge Guido Calabresi, and U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor. She later served as an appellate attorney at the Department of Justice and became a partner at Jones Day before moving into senior government roles, including principal deputy assistant attorney general in the Civil Rights Division. She was confirmed to the federal bench in January 2024.
