Guatemalan children who were almost deported this weekend said they are "traumatized" and "depressed" following the incident, according to a new report.
NBC News talked to a teen who went through the ordeal and recalled that several children ere woken up in the middle of the night during the weekend and told they would be sent to Guatemala. The move was stopped when they were already on the plane.
"I am afraid to return to Guatemala," said the teen, who fled the country last year after his sister was murdered. Court documents seen by the outlets show that he managed to call his mother and tell her he would be deported, leading her to cry.
The mother was not aware there were chances of him being deported. "She does not want me to return. She does not have the resources to care for me. My father is not a part of my life. I have no other family who could receive me," he said.
The teen and others who made similar statements said they could be recruited into gangs or face violence from relatives, criminal organizations and even the government if sent back.
The order halted the deportations for 14 days while the case is pending and covers hundreds of minors under U.S. custody since crossing the southern border unlawfully. All of them crossed without their parents and intended to stay with family members already in the country.
The Guatemalan government, on its end, said it's able to receive some 150 unaccompanied children from the U.S. every week.
"But the decision to send them, the number, and the pace is one that rests with the American government, and as you can see, there's currently a legal dispute," said Guatemalan President Bernardo Arevalo de Leon said earlier this week.
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