The E. Barrett Prettyman U.S. Courthouse in Washington, D.C., home of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, pictured on July 14, 2025. (Photo by Jacob Fischler/States Newsroom)

WASHINGTON — A federal judge Thursday barred the Trump administration from deporting unaccompanied children to Guatemala, finding that the administration’s claim of reuniting the children with their parents there “crumbled like a house of cards.”

District of Columbia Judge Timothy Kelly issued a preliminary injunction to extend last month’s temporary block to prevent the rapid removal of hundreds of Guatemalan children, who were woken in the middle of the night and rushed onto deportation planes over Labor Day weekend.

Kelly, whom President Donald Trump appointed in 2017, rejected the Trump admini

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