(NEW YORK) -- Following the near deportation of 76 Guatemalan minors over Labor Day weekend, attorneys for the minors are scheduled to appear before a judge Wednesday to seek a preliminary injunction blocking similar removals.
A judge over the weekend temporarily blocked the deportation of the unaccompanied minors without due process, just as they were sitting on the planes preparing to depart.
Justice Department officials have said the 76 minors were being removed in accordance with the law and at the request of the Guatemalan government and the minors' legal guardians, but attorneys for the minors say some of children did not have parents who had requested their return, and that some minors expressed a fear of returning to Guatemala.