Chaotic showdown over Guatemalan children exposes fault lines in Trump's deportation push

HARLINGEN, Texas (AP) — Laura Peña knew she had two hours to stop the children she represents from being deported home to Guatemala. She and other lawyers and advocates around the country were just starting to get word that Saturday night of Labor Day weekend that migrant children had just been woken up and were heading to the airport.

Hours of confusion ensued, including a frantic phone call to a judge at 2:36 a.m. It was remarkably similar to a chaotic March weekend when the Trump administration deported hundreds of Venezuelans to a maximum-security prison in El Salvador despite frantic attempts by attorneys and an intervention by a judge who came to court on a Saturday night in civilian dress.

This time, the attorneys managed to block the flights, at least for two weeks, but the episode has raised questions about how truthful the administration was in its initial accounts.

A Guatemalan government report obtained by The Associated Press from a U.S.-based human rights group says 50 of 115 families contacted by investigators said they wanted their children to stay in the U.S., undermining a key Trump administration claim that they wanted their children back in Guatemala. Another 59 families wouldn’t allow government teams in their homes, believing that refusing to cooperate would make it more likely their children could remain in the U.S., according to the report.

https://apnews.com/article/immigration-unaccompanied-children-trump-deportations-guatemala-73c9fa9db57472c0c74e7584c9ebc9a2