This lawsuit challenges the Trump administration’s unlawful plan to secretly remove unaccompanied Guatemalan children from the United States. The National Center for Youth Law, National Immigration Law Center (NILC), and Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection (ICAP) serve together as co-counsel.

Under federal law, unaccompanied children, who arrive to the U.S. without a parent or legal guardian, are placed in the custody of the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) until they can be released to a vetted sponsor or turn 18. 

The Trump administration’s plan to expel these children violates longstanding protections under the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorizations Act (TVPRA), federal legislation that passed in 2008 with overwhelming bipartisan support, as well as the Constitution. 

The lawsuit was filed on behalf of ten individual unaccompanied children, supported by the Young Center for Immigrant Children’s Rights as their “next friend.” The lead plaintiff in the case, L.G.M.L, is an indigenous 10-year-old girl whose mother passed away and who suffered abuse and neglect at the hands of other family members in Guatemala.