'Crumbled like a house of cards': Trump-appointed judge destroys argument in court

Donald Trump speaking at an event hosted by Students for Trump and Turning Point Action at Dream City Church in Phoenix, Arizona in June 2020, Gage Skidmore

A judge appointed by President Donald Trump handed him a devastating blow Thursday when he blocked the Trump administration from deporting over 600 unaccompanied Guatemalan children who entered the United States and were placed in the custody of the Office of Refugee Resettlement, reports Newsweek.

While Trump officials argued that their intention was to reunite children, ages 10-17, with parents who supposedly wanted them returned home over Labor Day weekend, U.S. District Judge Timothy J. Kelly, a U.S. district judge for the District of Columbia, appointed to the federal bench in 2017 by Trump during his first term, wasn't buying it.

"But that explanation crumbled like a house of cards about a week later," he wrote. "There is no evidence before the Court that the parents of these children sought their return."

Although a temporary order had already been preventing the removal of the children, the order was set to expire Tuesday and Kelly granted a preliminary injunction extending their protection indefinitely.

While the judge preserved safeguards for Guatemalan children, he declined to broaden the ruling to cover minors from other countries, Newsweek explains, but did say that any attempt to remove those children in a similar manner "would likely be unlawful."

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