A federal judge in Arizona temporarily blocked the Trump administration’s efforts to deport close to 70 unaccompanied minors from Honduras and Guatemala on Thursday.

U.S. District Judge Rosemary Márquez granted a preliminary injunction preventing “the repatriation or removal of any Plaintiff Child without a valid voluntary departure order or removal order issued by an immigration judge.”

She criticized the government’s argument that it was sending the children back to reunite them with their parents, writing it was “dangerously unclear” whether the plan would realize this outcome.

"The foundation of Defendants’ argument for their authority to transport Plaintiffs out of the United States is that........

© The Hill