The parents of some of the Guatemalan children the Trump administration attempted to deport in the name of family unification did not want the children to leave the U.S., according to a memo cited by lawmakers.
On Sunday, a federal judge blocked the deportation of the 76 children. The last-minute order came after the children had already boarded a plane that was going to go to Guatemala, ABC News reported.
In the memo referenced by Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Oregon, a parent told officials that if her daughter was brought to Guatemala, she "would do everything possible to get her out of the country again because she had received death threats and could not live in Guatemala," ABC News reported.
The contents of the memo are relevant because the Trump administration claimed that the removal of the children was being done in accordance with the Guatemalan government and at the behest of parents who wanted to be reunited with the children, the Associated Press reported.
In blocking the move, the judge expressed skepticism toward the government's position.
"I have the government attempting to remove unaccompanied minors from the country in the wee hours of the morning on a holiday weekend, which is surprising," the judge said during a last-minute hearing, according to the outlet. "Absent action by the courts, all of those children would have been returned to Guatemala, potentially to very dangerous situations."
According to the memo referenced by Wyden, Guatemala was notified that children would start to be returned in July. The Guatemalan government then began interviewing families and found that the families "expressed a desire for their children to be able to stay in the U.S.," ABC News reported.
The network said that, according to the memo, the families were "surprised and even upset" because they thought the children were in the process of legalizing their status and the families had not expectation the children would come to Guatemala.
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