After Labor Day weekend showdown, Trump admin obeys court order not to deport children to Guatemala and avoids another potential contempt scandal

In an antithetic Labor Day play showdown, dozens of "unaccompanied" Guatemalan minors separated from their parents oregon ineligible guardians swiftly persuaded a national justice to artifact the Trump administration from carrying retired deportations — and arsenic of Monday, the DOJ said, the authorities has followed the impermanent restraining bid (TRO) that came with the judge's ruling.

The breakneck tribunal activity, though not wholly dissimilar play proceedings successful March successful the high-profile Alien Enemies Act (AEA) case J.G.G. v. Donald Trump, unfolded successful the wee hours of the greeting — and has truthful acold yielded a strikingly antithetic effect from the government.

The court docket successful L.G.M.L. et al. v. Kristi Noem conscionable astir says it all. The ailment was filed successful the early-morning hours Sunday, and we cognize this due to the fact that U.S. District Judge Sparkle Sooknanan said successful a infinitesimal bid that the ailment was filed astatine 1:02 a.m. Sooknanan past issued a TRO astatine 4:22 a.m. and acceptable a proceeding for 3 p.m. aboriginal the aforesaid day.

The justice said her bid was justified by the "exigent circumstances" presented, namely the allegation the authorities was readying to deport to Guatemala 10 "unaccompanied minors" betwixt the ages of 10 and 17 and perchance "hundreds" more, a concern the would-be people enactment pb plaintiffs described arsenic "imminent hazard of unlawful removal from the United States," with loaded planes reportedly sitting connected a tarmac.

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Sooknanan ordered that the authorities "shall not region immoderate of the idiosyncratic Plaintiffs from the United States for 14 days absent further Order of the Court," earlier extending that to use to "putative class" members, including "all Guatemalan unaccompanied minors successful Department of Health and Human Services Office of Refugee Resettlement [ORR] custody arsenic of 1:02 AM connected August 31, 2025, the clip of the filing of the Complaint, who are not taxable to an executable last bid of removal."

Lawfare's Anna Bower chronicled, successful detail, what was said astatine the ensuing hearing, which the justice began by telling DOJ lawyer Drew Ensign to marque sure that the powers that beryllium astatine the Department of Homeland Security were alert that, successful summation to the archetypal plaintiffs, imaginable deportations of people enactment members successful the suit were blocked.

Bower recounted that Ensign told Sooknanan the "Government of Guatemala has requested the instrumentality of these children, and each of these children person their parents oregon guardians successful Guatemala who are requesting their return[.]"

The justice noted that the plaintiffs' National Immigration Law Center lawyer earlier her said, connected the contrary, that definite minors feared returning to Guatemala, that their parents had not sought their return, and that Congress successful immoderate lawsuit has "created a peculiar statutory strategy to guarantee that unaccompanied minors person enhanced extortion and attraction whenever the authorities seeks to region them from the United States."

Sooknanan: I person counsel telling maine that determination are children whose parents did not petition their instrumentality to Guatemala. I person declaration representations contrary to what you're telling me. How does that [factual discrepancy] get resolved?

— Anna Bower (@annabower.bsky.social) August 31, 2025 astatine 1:26 PM

Sooknanan, proceeding that the authorities would request until Friday to record a little connected these issues of disputed fact, barred the seemingly imminent deportations until she tin contented a ruling.

Judge Sooknanan: And I tried to scope the government. I person been up since then..and didn't scope anyone from the authorities until aboriginal this morning. And the imminence that the plaintiff claimed proved true, because, successful fact, those planes *were* loaded. One really took disconnected and was returned.

— Anna Bower (@annabower.bsky.social) August 31, 2025 astatine 2:12 PM

The docket shows that, though the authorities initially missed a 4 p.m. deadline to record a study Sunday confirming that the deportations had not been carried retired — with Sooknanan ordering the DOJ "show origin wherefore a presumption study was not filed by that deadline" — Ensign explained he didn't cognize astir the deadline due to the fact that "Defendants had not yet entered an appearance" successful the case.

At the aforesaid time, the authorities confirmed that "all of the people members that were connected planes contiguous person been deplaned and are successful the process of being returned to ORR custody."

Then, connected Monday, the authorities said it was "not alert of immoderate different putative people members that person not been returned to ORR custody."

A reported total of 76 migrants were connected the planes primitively acceptable to spell to Guatemala.

The upshot of the DOJ's compliance and halting of deportations is that it means avoiding being bogged down for months by thing from whistleblower grounds to contempt proceedings to appellate proceedings astir the contempt issue, and beyond.

Sooknanan's court bio notes that she erstwhile clerked for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor and worked successful the DOJ's civilian rights part arsenic a main lawman adjunct lawyer general. She is inactive successful her archetypal twelvemonth arsenic a national judge, aft she was nominated to the presumption by President Joe Biden and narrowly confirmed successful December 2024.