Secret Attempted Deportation of Close to 700 Guatemalan Children Blocked by Federal Judge, by Angela Valenzuela, Ph.D.

Secret Attempted Deportation of Close to 700 Guatemalan Children Blocked by Federal Judge

by

Angela Valenzuela, Ph.D.

September 1, 2025

Staffers of the Attorney General's Office take the data of relatives outside of the Returnee Reception Center while waiting for the arrival of minors intended to be deported from the United States, at the Guatemalan Air Force Base in Guatemala City on Aug. 31. Johan Ordonez/AFP Getty Images

In a stunning and chilling move over the holiday weekend, the Trump administration attempted to secretly deport hundreds of Guatemalan children—The Guardian reporting as many as 700—loading some onto planes before a federal judge intervened. Justice Sparkle Sooknanan, a Biden appointee, issued a temporary order halting the expulsions, noting that these children were being denied their legal right to seek asylum and risked being sent back to danger. Thanks to the National Immigration Law Center for defending these children's rights.

Attorneys did not mince words: this was child abuse disguised as policy.

Without the judge’s intervention, terrified children would have been expelled in the dead of night, stripped of protections guaranteed under U.S. law.

Of all this administration’s cruelties toward immigrants and its utter disregard for human rights, this stands out as an outlier among outliers. Not just Trump, but advisor Stephen Miller’s fingerprints are smeared across this operation—Miller, whose sadistic obsession with inflicting pain on immigrant families has long driven the administration’s most inhumane policies. 

Critics have even drawn chilling comparisons between Miller and Joseph Goebbels, Hitler’s infamous propagandist, noting their shared reliance on fear, lies, and dehumanization as tools of power (Daily Kos, 2017). 

Joseph Goebbels and Stephen Miller.  Source: Daily Kos

Like Goebbels, his uncanny look-alike, Miller, understands that words and images can be weaponized: the relentless portrayal of immigrants as threats, the unending refrain of ‘invasion’ rhetoric, and the poisonous lie that immigrant children are a burden rather than a blessing.

Goebbels used propaganda to normalize the unthinkable; Miller uses policy and spin to achieve the same end—conditioning the public to accept, even rationalize, the abuse of small and young, vulnerable human beings.

What makes this episode even more alarming are the unanswered questions. We still do not know the exact ages of the children targeted—whether toddlers and very young children were among those nearly deported. If so, how many? Nor do we know where they were being held under the custody of the Office of Refugee Resettlement, or in what conditions.

Equally disturbing is the possibility that ICE or U.S. Department of Health and Human Service officials ignored their own legal safeguards. Were attorneys, guardians, or child advocates notified in advance? If not, then the government sought to disappear children into dangerous situations without even the most basic due process protections.

And what of the dangers these children would face if returned? Violence, poverty, persecution—none of this appears to have been meaningfully assessed. Let us not forget: these are children who already managed the treacherous path from Guatemala to the U.S., carrying trauma from violence, displacement, and the long, perilous journey north. To now subject them to sudden deportation only compounds their mental anguish, turning resilience into retraumatization.

Finally, there are questions about whether the Guatemalan government truly requested their return, or whether this claim was exaggerated by the Department of Justice to justify a rushed and unlawful operation.

These children did not—nor have they ever—posed any risks to our country. The only “risks” here are the ones fabricated by a xenophobic administration: the false claim that children are a burden on our schools, that immigrant families undermine our communities, or that asylum seekers threaten national security. These are bogus risks, built on fear and racism, not fact.

We cannot remain silent.

Join us Thursday, September 4th at 5PM for the Austin SDS Rally—UT students standing against the Trump administration’s bigoted and reactionary agenda.

References

Eisner, C. (2025, Aug. 31) Hundreds of unaccompanied Guatemalan children can stay in the U.S. for now, judge says, Morning Edition, NPR. https://www.npr.org/2025/08/31/nx-s1-5524312/federal-judge-block-guatemalan-children-deportation

Guardian. (2025, Aug. 31). Judge orders US to halt deportation of hundreds of Guatemalan children, The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/aug/31/judge-blocks-deportation-guatemalan-children

hammerinhank. (2017, November 5). Trump’s Stephen Miller and Hitler’s Joseph Goebbels are chillingly similar. Daily Kos. https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2017/11/5/1687333/-Trump-s-Stephen-Miller-and-Hitler-s-Joseph-Goebbels-are-chillingly-similar?utm_source=chatgpt.com

Jordan, M. & Kavi, A. (2025, Aug. 31). Judge Halts U.S. Effort to Deport Guatemalan Children as Planes Sit on Tarmac, New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/31/us/politics/trump-deportations-judge-guatemala-children.html