Guatemala prepared to receive deported minors from the US, president says

By Sofia Menchu

GUATEMALA CITY, Sept 1 (Reuters) - Guatemala is ready and willing to receive some 150 unaccompanied minors per week of all ages from the United States, President Bernardo Arevalo said on Monday, a day after a U.S. federal judge halted the deportation of 10 Guatemalan children.

U.S. President Donald Trump's administration said in a court filing on Monday that the 10 children, who had been boarded onto planes when the court responded to an emergency pre-dawn appeal, had since been returned to shelters run by the Office of Refugee Resettlement.

Arevalo told journalists in Guatemala City that his government has been coordinating with the U.S. 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 U.S. custody after crossing the southern border.

Trump, a Republican, 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 U.S. 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.