A mother and daughter recently deported can return to the United States after an appeals court ordered federal officials to stop their deportation on Friday. The family had been deported to Guatemala, but the judge ordered federal officials to find them and return them to the U.S.

The Third Circuit Court of Appeals told immigration officials to return 34-year-old Ana and her 12-year-old daughter from Guatemala after they had been deported without Immigration and Custom Enforcement (ICE) informing the court, reported McClatchy D.C. On Friday, June 19, Ana and her daughter were awakened in the early morning and taken from Berks County Residential Center in Pennsylvania and put on a flight.

Chief Judge Theodore A. McKee, upon learning of their deportation, ordered officials to intercept them as soon as they land in Guatemala City and return them to the U.S.

"If the government is unable to intercept Petitioners at the airport, they must locate Petitioners in Guatemala and return them to the United States as quickly as possible," McKee wrote in his order.

Bridget Cambria, the family's attorney, had filed a motion with the court to block Ana's deportation. As of June 9, the U.S. attorney's office said ICE had no plans to deport Ana and her daughter; however, they were removed before 10 a.m. on Friday. The court would have blocked the deportation had it known ICE's intentions.

"Right now the agency is working to prepare a way forward for all parties involved in the case," said ICE spokesperson Gillian Christensen.

However, Cambria accuses ICE of playing tricks with people's lives and denying Ana and her daughter due process. Cambria revealed the family was protected, as they had been victims of domestic abuse in Guatemala.

Chief Judge McKee's order may open new doors in family deportation cases, setting a potential precedent for other courts to reverse deportations already enacted.

Immigration activists have been calling on the Obama administration to handle family deportation cases differently so as to not separate families or deport them to hostile environments.

Last week, immigration activists and attorneys protested Cecilia Muñoz's appearance at the Annual Conference on Immigration Law. They demanded the Obama administration stop the incarceration and deportation of undocumented immigrant families, especially pregnant women and children.

The president, however, disavows these claims, having asserted that only dangerous criminals would be deported.

A recent report by Human Rights Watch titled "A Price Too High: U.S. Families Torn Apart by Deportations for Drug Offenses" shows the administration has been deporting various undocumented immigrants for low-level drug possession charges, which in some cases would only merit a fine or a short jail sentence.

Between 2007 and 2012, around 260,000 were deported after being convicted of drug offenses. Of these, 34,000 were marijuana-related.

As of this writing, it remains uncertain whether Ana and her daughter have been found and returned to the U.S.