Trinidad Born Judge Sparkle Sooknanan Blocks Sending Children back to Guatemala

District Court Judge Sparkle Sooknanan’s order on Sunday was in response to reports children had been put onto planes and were about to be sent to Guatemala, where lawyers argued they would be at risk of abuse and persecution. Even though both Guatemala and the parents want the children back.

With a name like Sparkle the post almost wrote itself.Why am I not surprised? Another Biden appointment slid in just under the bell before Trump took office. Apparently every judge under Biden required birth from outside our country. She was 16 when she graduated High School.

Sooknanan was born in San Fernando, Trinidad and Tobago, to parents of Indian descent.^[4][5][1] Sooknanan graduated from Naparima Girls’ High School in 2000.^[5]

Naparima Girls’ High School is an all-girls high school in San Fernando, Trinidad and Tobago.

Rambally, Rhonda Krystal (March 3, 2013). “Sparkle shines with Sotomayor”. Trinidad & Tobago Guardian. Archived from the original on March 6, 2013. Retrieved August 16, 2025.

B.S., summa cum laude, from St. Francis College in 2002, her M.B.A., with distinction, from Hofstra University in 2003, and her J.D., summa cum laude, from Brooklyn Law School in 2010.

The years out there don’t match up but you get the drift. https://www.dcd.uscourts.gov/content/district-judge-sparkle-l-sooknanan

Thrilled to clerk for Sotomayor
Sooknanan is the first graduate of Brooklyn Law School to clerk for the US Supreme Court. On December 20 last year, the school published an article on its Web site highlighting Sooknanan’s accomplishment.School president Joan G Wexler wrote: “Sparkle is the first Brooklyn Law School graduate to achieve this great honour. “We are all enormously proud of her.” Sooknanan praised Sotomayor saying she was not only a brilliant jurist and person but an exceptional role model. 

At her confirmation last year in the Senate Judiciary Committee, Judge Sparkle Sooknanan, who is currently blocking President Trump’s attempt to deport children to Guatemala, faced tough questioning from Sen. Josh Hawley

Sooknanan’s representation of vulture funds in Puerto Rico has angered some of the island’s biggest defenders in Washington. Rep. Nydia Velázquez (D-NY), ranking Democrat on the House Small Business Committee, condemned the nomination as “an insult to the people of Puerto Rico” last month. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) retweeted Velázquez’s post.

At the confirmation hearing, Sooknanan made the defense was that she complied with all ethical standards as an attorney and that her clients are entitled to vigorous counsel. But senators noted that she spoke against Jones Day’s representation of Donald Trump in cases challenging the 2020 election, and quit the firm a few months later.

It was claimed elsewhere that documents show she was the lead counsel.

Another D.C. Judge who will be there for the next bizzion years. The best of swamp.