The Trump administration is moving to repatriate hundreds of Guatemalan children in government custody who arrived in the United States alone, according to multiple sources familiar with the planning who described the scope of the effort as unprecedented.
It’s the latest in a series of moves since President Donald Trump returned to office focused on unaccompanied migrant children in the United States — in this case, plucking kids out of government custody, where they’re waiting to be released to a relative or guardian in the US who can care for them while they make their case for protection, and sending them to Guatemala, where they’re expected to be reunited with family.
The administration has identified more than 600 children from Guatemala in the custody of the Health and Human Serv