(BSS/AFP) - A US court on Sunday blocked the government from deporting hundreds of Guatemalan children in a blow to President Donald Trump`s sweeping crackdown on migrants.

More than 600 unaccompanied minors living in the United States were facing deportation to Guatemala under a pilot program negotiated with the Central American country, a court filing said.

But Sunday`s ruling, which followed an emergency complaint by a migrant rights group, temporarily halted their removal for at least 14 days.

The National Immigration Law Center had criticized the Trump administration`s move, accusing it of having "ripped vulnerable, frightened children from their beds and attempted to return them to danger" during the Labor Day holiday weekend.

"We are heartened the Court prevented this injustice from occurring before hundreds of children suffered irreparable harm," Efren Olivares, a vice president at the NILC, said in a statement.

The group filed a class action suit on behalf of hundreds of Guatemalan children whom it said were at "imminent risk of unlawful removal from the United States."

It claimed the government`s actions were "exposing children to multiple harms in returning them to a country where they fear persecution and by flouting their legal obligations to care for them in the United States."

The ruling marks another legal setback for Trump, who came to office in January with a promise of leading the largest deportation program in history, targeting millions of undocumented migrants.

On Friday, a US judge blocked the Trump administration from massively expanding a procedure that allows authorities to swiftly deport migrants without a court hearing.