Washington, DC—Attorneys who have been working since August 2025 to protect unaccompanied Guatemalan children in government custody from being deported filed a motion February 24 seeking to stop Customs and Border Protection agents from urging unaccompanied children apprehended at the U.S.-Mexico border to voluntarily deport under a federal policy implemented last year and forgo their opportunity to make their case for U.S. protection. The attorneys argue that the practice violates an injunction that prohibits the government from deporting unaccompanied Guatemalan children unless they have gone through immigration court proceedings.
In response, KIND President Wendy Young issued the following statement:
“KIND is deeply disturbed by reports that the Department of Homeland Security is coercing many unaccompanied children who request humanitarian protection at the U.S.-Mexico border to abandon their protection claims and accept summary return to the countries and harms they fled.
The bipartisan Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2008 requires that all unaccompanied children who are from countries other than Mexico and Canada receive a full and fair opportunity to present their protection claims before an immigration judge. This requirement helps ensure due process and prevent the return of children to trafficking, abuse, and persecution.
DHS’s summary returns of children at the border flouts that requirement, in many cases violates a standing injunction against the expulsion of certain children from Guatemala, and places children’s safety and lives at risk. KIND calls upon DHS to immediately cease these summary returns at the border and to fully comply with bedrock bipartisan safeguards designed to keep children safe.”
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Media Contact: Megan McKenna, mmckenna@supportkind.org, 202-631-9990
