On the eve of the 2025 Labor Day holiday weekend, attorneys and advocates for children across the country learned that the Trump administration was planning to imminently remove hundreds of Guatemalan children in the custody of the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) to Guatemala, and that flights had been planned for that very weekend. Lawyers from a large number of organizations serving immigrant children organized a nationwide response, filing several emergency lawsuits to block the administration from conducting these removals in violation of U.S. and international legal protections.

The National Immigration Law Center (NILC) filed a prospective class action, known as L.G.M.L. et al. v. Kristi Noem, et al., in the federal district court for the District of Columbia on behalf of Guatemalan children in ORR custody seeking an injunction barring the government from removing them to Guatemala without due process and in violation of their rights. The Young Center is serving as “next friend” for named plaintiffs in this case. Young Center Child Advocate staff filed a declaration in support of plaintiffs’ request for a temporary restraining order (TRO).

Judge Sparkle Sooknanan entered a TRO on August 31, 2025, blocking the federal government from removing named plaintiffs and all children in the putative class pending briefing on a preliminary injunction. On September 18, 2025, Judge Thomas Kelly entered a preliminary injunction order and issued an accompanying memorandum opinion that protects the class from expulsion pending the outcome of the litigation. More about the case can be found on NILC’s website.