WASHINGTON -- A federal judge on Thursday blocked President Donald Trump's administration from immediately deporting Guatemalan migrant children who came to the U.S. alone back to their home country, the latest step in a court struggle over one of the most sensitive issues in Trump's hard-line immigration agenda.

The decision by U.S. District Judge Timothy J. Kelly comes after the Republican administration's Labor Day weekend attempt to remove Guatemalan migrant children who were living in government shelters and foster care.

Government officials with the Department of Homeland Security nor the Office of Refugee Resettlement, which takes custody of the children, offered no immediate response to the judge's order.

Trump administration officials said they were seeking to reunify children

See Full Page