At age 15, I.B. fled poverty and a father who abused her in Guatemala. She emigrated without her parents to the United States — like hundreds of children Donald Trump’s administration recently tried to deport.Between October 2024 and August 2025, 28,867 unaccompanied minors entered the United States — a 70 percent drop from the previous period, according to US Customs and Border Patrol.Hundreds are Guatemalans from impoverished indigenous communities, as shown by court documents recently obtained by AFP.I.B. entered the United States in September 2024 and was sent to live with a foster family in Connecticut by the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR), a US government agency that handles cases of unaccompanied minors.”I had to leave Guatemala because of all my suffering there,” a court document quotes her as saying. “There were times when we had no food, and sometimes I had to eat food from dumpsters to survive.””My father was not part of my life since I was very young, and during one of the few times I saw him, he abused me,” she added.In August, immigration officers asked her if she had any family in her home country.”No one asked me if I was afraid to go back to Guatemala, which I am.”- ‘Get ready’ -I.B. is represented by the National Immigration Law Center (NILC), an NGO that blocked the deportation of 76 unaccompanied Guatemalan minors from an airport in Harlingen, Texas on August 31.Another minor referred to as F.O.Y.P. was in that group.”At about 1 o’clock in the morning, they arrived in my room and told me they were going to be transporting me out of the shelter. They gave me only about 20 to 30 minutes to get ready,” the 17-year-old said.It was not clear where he was being taken, but “finally, they told us that we were all going to be going back to Guatemala.”He was taken to an airport where a group of 76 teens waited for four hours on busses and four more in an airplane.Eventually they were taken off the plane and, according to court testimony, returned to shelters.Their deportation was blocked by a judge who issued an emergency injunction, saying it is illegal to deport unaccompanied children when an immigration judge has not ruled on their cases.In mid-September, a federal judge in Washington, Timothy Kelly, extended the block. The administration of President Donald Trump has yet to appeal. The halted deportation is a victory not only for the Guatemalan teens taken off the plane, but also for other unaccomanied minors “for whom the court also concluded that attempts to expel them without the protections of the law would likely be unlawful,” said Mary McCord of the Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection at Georgetown University in Washington.According to the US government, 327 Guatemalan children older than 14 qualify to be returned to their country of origin under a bilateral accord. Guatemala’s government says the number is more than 600.- ‘I do not want to go back’ -The US Department of Homeland Security maintains the minors should be with their families, but Judge Kelly found that was not necessarily what the families wanted.”There is no evidence before the Court that the parents of these children sought their return,” Kelly wrote. “To the contrary, the Guatemalan Attorney General reports that officials could not even track down parents for most of the children whom Defendants found eligible for their reunification.”Guatemalan President Bernardo Arevalo said the decision to repatriate the minors was based on fears that once they turned 18 they could be removed from shelters and placed in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention centers.”We will be happy to accept any unaccompanied child who is able to return voluntarily or by court order,” he said.What do the kids themselves have to say?”Here in the US, I live with my foster family who treats me well and supports me…I do not want to go back to Guatemala,” I.B. said.Another teen, identified as M.A.L.R., said that on August 29 a judge informed her that her name was on a list of Guatemalan children who wanted to return home. But she did not.When she was taken from her foster family and put on a bus, she felt sick and feverish and almost vomited. M.A.L.R. fled Guatemala at age 15 after she and her family received death threats from a man whose advances she had rebuffed. B.M.R.P., her mother, said she had never been contacted by the government in Guatemala or the United States. “I also never told anyone I wanted M. to return. I think she is in danger if she does return to Guatemala,” court documents quote her as saying.”All I ask is that you help my daughter stay safe — help her stay safe by not returning her to Guatemala.”
At age 15, I.B. fled poverty and a father who abused her in Guatemala. She emigrated without her parents to the United States — like hundreds of children Donald Trump’s administration recently tried to deport.Between October 2024 and August 2025, 28,867 unaccompanied minors entered the United States — a 70 percent drop from the previous period, according to US Customs and Border Patrol.Hundreds are Guatemalans from impoverished indigenous communities, as shown by court documents recently obtained by AFP.I.B. entered the United States in September 2024 and was sent to live with a foster family in Connecticut by the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR), a US government agency that handles cases of unaccompanied minors.”I had to leave Guatemala because of all my suffering there,” a court document quotes her as saying. “There were times when we had no food, and sometimes I had to eat food from dumpsters to survive.””My father was not part of my life since I was very young, and during one of the few times I saw him, he abused me,” she added.In August, immigration officers asked her if she had any family in her home country.”No one asked me if I was afraid to go back to Guatemala, which I am.”- ‘Get ready’ -I.B. is represented by the National Immigration Law Center (NILC), an NGO that blocked the deportation of 76 unaccompanied Guatemalan minors from an airport in Harlingen, Texas on August 31.Another minor referred to as F.O.Y.P. was in that group.”At about 1 o’clock in the morning, they arrived in my room and told me they were going to be transporting me out of the shelter. They gave me only about 20 to 30 minutes to get ready,” the 17-year-old said.It was not clear where he was being taken, but “finally, they told us that we were all going to be going back to Guatemala.”He was taken to an airport where a group of 76 teens waited for four hours on busses and four more in an airplane.Eventually they were taken off the plane and, according to court testimony, returned to shelters.Their deportation was blocked by a judge who issued an emergency injunction, saying it is illegal to deport unaccompanied children when an immigration judge has not ruled on their cases.In mid-September, a federal judge in Washington, Timothy Kelly, extended the block. The administration of President Donald Trump has yet to appeal. The halted deportation is a victory not only for the Guatemalan teens taken off the plane, but also for other unaccomanied minors “for whom the court also concluded that attempts to expel them without the protections of the law would likely be unlawful,” said Mary McCord of the Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection at Georgetown University in Washington.According to the US government, 327 Guatemalan children older than 14 qualify to be returned to their country of origin under a bilateral accord. Guatemala’s government says the number is more than 600.- ‘I do not want to go back’ -The US Department of Homeland Security maintains the minors should be with their families, but Judge Kelly found that was not necessarily what the families wanted.”There is no evidence before the Court that the parents of these children sought their return,” Kelly wrote. “To the contrary, the Guatemalan Attorney General reports that officials could not even track down parents for most of the children whom Defendants found eligible for their reunification.”Guatemalan President Bernardo Arevalo said the decision to repatriate the minors was based on fears that once they turned 18 they could be removed from shelters and placed in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention centers.”We will be happy to accept any unaccompanied child who is able to return voluntarily or by court order,” he said.What do the kids themselves have to say?”Here in the US, I live with my foster family who treats me well and supports me…I do not want to go back to Guatemala,” I.B. said.Another teen, identified as M.A.L.R., said that on August 29 a judge informed her that her name was on a list of Guatemalan children who wanted to return home. But she did not.When she was taken from her foster family and put on a bus, she felt sick and feverish and almost vomited. M.A.L.R. fled Guatemala at age 15 after she and her family received death threats from a man whose advances she had rebuffed. B.M.R.P., her mother, said she had never been contacted by the government in Guatemala or the United States. “I also never told anyone I wanted M. to return. I think she is in danger if she does return to Guatemala,” court documents quote her as saying.”All I ask is that you help my daughter stay safe — help her stay safe by not returning her to Guatemala.”
