Race Against Time – “Everyone Fighting to Save Honduran Children from Trump’s Deportations”

It is once again one of those weekends when everything happens at once. In Arizona, the Florence Immigrant & Refugee Rights Project (FIRRP) pulled the emergency brake on Friday and expanded its ongoing lawsuit against the Trump administration – this time to include twelve children from Honduras, whose deportation is, according to our information, imminent. It is the next act in a drama that only a few days ago led to a federal judge halting the planned deportation of dozens of Guatemalan children.

What we are hearing from good sources sounds unequivocal: The authorities want to begin deportations as early as this weekend – despite ongoing proceedings and in direct violation of the children’s right to seek protection in the United States. The law clearly states that minors from non-neighboring countries cannot simply be deported but are entitled to a hearing before an immigration judge, access to legal counsel and placement in a child-appropriate setting. Anything else would be an attack on the rule of law. For us, this means: lose no time. Just as with the Guatemalan children, it is now a matter of compiling data, documenting cases, securing evidence – hour by hour, day and night. Human rights lawyers and child protection organizations have been warning of an escalation for days. The planned deportation of 600 Guatemalan children over Labor Day weekend had caused outrage nationwide. That the government is now also targeting Honduran children is seen as a test run to further erode child protection that is already severely weakened. “These children are not pawns,” reads a statement from FIRRP. “They have rights, and we will fight to ensure those rights are respected.”

The Department of Homeland Security remains silent. Neither Friday nor Saturday did it respond to press inquiries. Observers expect that another emergency motion will be necessary to stop the deportations – and that the courts will have to intervene again. For the children, every day counts: Every minute they remain in the United States can determine whether they receive a fair hearing or are sent back to countries where violence, poverty and hopelessness threaten their lives. It is possible that our articles on Sunday or Monday may be slightly delayed, because no one here can remain uninvolved. Each of us has several tasks at once this weekend, because one thing Donald Trump knows how to do like no one else – to keep you so busy that even late at night you are still trying to stop injustice.