Announcement comes a day after a US federal judge halted the deportation of 10 unaccompanied Guatemalan minors

Guatemala is ready and willing to receive about 150 unaccompanied children of all ages each week from the United States, the country’s president has said, a day after a US federal judge halted the deportation of 10 Guatemalan children.

Those children had already boarded a plane when a court responded to an emergency appeal on Sunday. They were later returned to the custody of the Office of Refugee Resettlement.

On Monday, Guatemala’s president, Bernardo Arévalo, told journalists that his government had been coordinating with the US to receive the unaccompanied minors.

“But the decision to send them, the number, and the pace is one that rests with the American government, and as you can see, there’s currently a legal dispute,” he said.

Lawyers for the children, aged 10 to 17, argued in court filings that the deportations would be a “clear violation of the unambiguous protections that Congress has provided them as vulnerable children”. They also said the children could face peril and abuse if they were returned to Guatemala.

District judge Sparkle Sooknanan’s order halting deportation of the children applies for 14 days while the case is pending. It covers potentially hundreds of unaccompanied Guatemalan minors who have been in US custody after crossing the southern border.

Trump returned to the White House in January in part on a promise to deport more migrants than his predecessors. Courts have found that at least some of his accelerated deportation efforts violate constitutional rights to due process.

The children had crossed into the US unaccompanied by their parents or guardians, in many instances to stay with relatives already in the country, and are by law entitled to heightened protections while their asylum and other immigration claims are processed.

Source: www.theguardian.com