After the U.S. government loaded children onto planes overnight to be sent back to their native Guatemala, a federal judge temporarily blocked the flights — with the youngsters still inside — as their attorneys said authorities were violating U.S. laws and sending vulnerable kids into potential peril. The extraordinary drama played out over predawn hours on a U.S. holiday weekend and vaulted from tarmacs in Texas to a courtroom in Washington. It was the latest showdown over the Trump administration's crackdown on immigration — and the latest high-stakes clash between the administration's enforcement efforts and legal safeguards that Congress created for vulnerable migrants. For now, hundreds of Guatemalan children who arrived unaccompanied will stay while the legal fight plays out over coming weeks. Minutes after her hastily scheduled hearing Sunday afternoon, five charter buses pulled up to a plane parked at the border-area airport in Harlingen, Texas. Hours earlier, authorities had walked dozens of passengers — perhaps 50 — toward the plane in an airport sector restricted to government planes, including deportation flights. The passengers were wearing colored clothing typically used in government-run shelters for migrant children. The U.S. government insists it's reuniting the Guatemalan children — at the Central American nation's request — with parents or guardians who sought their return. Lawyers for at least some of the minors say that's untrue and argue that in any event, authorities still would have to follow a legal process that they did not. Sunday's court hearing came in a case filed in federal court in Washington, but similar legal actions also were filed elsewhere. Migrant children who arrive in the U.S. without their parents or guardians are routinely handed over to the Department of Health and Human Services' Office of Refugee Resettlement. They often live in government-supervised shelters or with foster care families until they can be released to a sponsor — usually a relative — in the U.S. Many of those from Guatemala request asylum or pursue other legal avenues to get permission to stay.