August 31, 2025 Update
Tucson, AZ – Florence Project Managing Attorney Laura Belous said: “Federal district court Judge Rosemary Marquez on Sunday joined at least two other federal courts in temporarily blocking the Trump administration’s plans to illegally remove Guatemalan unaccompanied children. In doing so, she recognized that the children are likely to prevail on their claims that plans to remove them outside of the laws that guarantee a right to see a judge and present claims for relief violate the law. We are relieved that our clients are protected from removal and will continue to advocate to ensure they are given to opportunity for a full and fair immigration process.”
Tucson, AZ – The Florence Immigrant & Refugee Rights Project on Saturday August 30, 2025 filed a lawsuit to protect the rights of unaccompanied immigrant children seeking protection in the United States. The lawsuit comes in response to a plan by the Trump administration, which has been reported by CNN and the New York Times and confirmed by the Guatemalan government, to repatriate all Guatemalan children in U.S. government custody, in direct violation of the children’s rights to seek protection in the United States.
“This attempt by the Trump administration to send these Guatemalan children back to Guatemala against their wishes and without an appropriate court order is another escalation of the government’s egregious attacks on unaccompanied immigrant children,” said Roxana Avila-Cimpeanu, Florence Project Deputy Director. “We are acting on behalf of 53 children who have all expressed to our legal team that they do not want to return to Guatemala. To repatriate them against their wishes before they are able to speak with an Immigration Judge is blatantly illegal, in direct violation of their rights, and puts children in danger of harm, including trafficking.”
The lawsuit is filed on behalf of 53 Guatemalan children who are in the custody of the Office of Refugee Resettlement in Arizona and who have expressed to the Florence Project that they do not want to return to Guatemala. The Florence Immigrant & Refugee Rights Project is also an organizational plaintiff in the suit.
One plaintiff is a 12-year-old girl who suffers from chronic kidney disease and relies on dialysis to stay alive. Her illness is severe enough that she will require a kidney transplant. She has already been in ORR care for more than a year and is seeking asylum in the United States. She fears that she will not receive the care she needs in Guatemala.
A second plaintiff is 17 years old and pregnant. In Guatemala, she never completed elementary school because she was forced to leave school to work for her father in the fields. She has told her legal team that her father became angry when he found out about her pregnancy and will likely not accept her back home, and if she is returned to Guatemala, she will not have access to prenatal, childbirth, or postnatal care for herself or her newborn baby, nor will she have any way to support herself and her child.
Two more plaintiffs are a 10-year-old boy and his 3-year-old sister. He told his attorney that he does not want to go back to Guatemala, and he does not have family there. He repeatedly expressed happiness that we could help him, sharing “I have an attorney that is going to help me!”
The lawsuit demands that the government be ordered to follow existing and well enshrined laws that provide protections for unaccompanied children in acknowledgement of their special vulnerabilities and the government’s duty to protect them. These include the right to present their cases to an immigration judge, to have access to legal counsel, and to be placed in the least restrictive setting that is in the best interest of the child. The government’s plan to remove children to Guatemala outside of these protections cruelly ignores decades of long-standing federal law and places children in harm’s way.
The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona.