Biden judge blocks Trump from returning ‘smuggled migrant children’ to their parents

Left-wing judges are continuing to man the ramparts against President Donald J. Trump’s immigration policies, the latest being a foreign-born Joe Biden appointee.

Early Sunday morning, Judge Sparkle L. Sooknanan blocked the administration from returning hundreds of unaccompanied migrant children to their home country of Guatemala after left-wing activist groups filed suit.

In the filing, lawyers for the children wrote that “ten (10) unaccompanied minors from Guatemala between the ages of 10 and 17 whom Defendants are seeking to remove from the United States in clear violation of the unambiguous protections that Congress has provided them as vulnerable children.”

Sooknanan, who is herself an immigrant from Trinidad and Tobago, complied by granting the temporary restraining order in her pre-dawn ruling issued just after 4 a.m. on Sunday, according to Politico.

BREAKING: A federal judge has *blocked* the Trump administration from abruptly deporting 600 unaccompanied Guatemalan children — perhaps within a matter of hours — granting an emergency restraining order after advocates called the plan illegal + dangerous. https://t.co/Hetxac7fxH pic.twitter.com/oQHDQMIlc8

— Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney) August 31, 2025

“I have the government attempting to remove minor children from the country in the wee hours of the morning on a holiday weekend, which is surprising, but here we are,” the Biden appointee said in a “hastily assembled” virtual hearing.

“I have conflicting narratives from both sides here,” Sooknanan said, adding that the claims from the activist advocates “doesn’t quite line up with what I’m getting from the government.”

Sooknanan was spurred to act after Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) claimed that removing the children from the United States would violate the Office of Refugee Resettlement’s “child welfare mandate and this country’s long-established obligation to these children,” according to a Friday Associated Press report.

“This move threatens to separate children from their families, lawyers, and support systems, to thrust them back into the very conditions they are seeking refuge from, and to disappear vulnerable children beyond the reach of American law and oversight,” the far-left Democrat said in the letter to the office’s acting Director Angie Salazar, demanding that the plans be halted.

But while her ruling is immensely pleasing to lawfare-loving leftists, it actually prevents the children from being reunified with their parents, who are already in Guatemala, which has agreed to accept them.

“These smuggled migrant children were orphaned in America by the Biden Administration. The minors have all self-reported that their parents are back home in Guatemala. But a Democrat judge is refusing to let them reunify with their parents,” said White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller in a Sunday post to X.

It’s actually much worse than even that. These smuggled migrant children were orphaned in America by the Biden Administration. The minors have all self-reported that their parents are back home in Guatemala. But a Democrat judge is refusing to let them reunify with their parents. https://t.co/o3h6e0YsMC

— Stephen Miller (@StephenM) August 31, 2025

“The Biden judge is effectively kidnapping these migrant children and refusing to let them return home to their parents in their home country,” Miller added in another post.

The Biden judge is effectively kidnapping these migrant children and refusing to let them return home to their parents in their home country. https://t.co/DAcYo2llYg

— Stephen Miller (@StephenM) August 31, 2025

“These are not removals under the statute,” said Justice Department attorney Drew Ensign. “These are repatriations. … It’s outrageous that the plaintiffs are trying to interfere with these reunifications.”

“All of these children have parents or guardians in Guatemala who have requested their return,” Ensign added.