FORT LAUDERDALE — The tears fell in torrents and the sobs were audible paces away as Olga Perez embraced her four children and made a vow before leaving them to grow up on their own in the nation where they are citizens — and where she is not.
“We are a team,” the longtime Palm Beach County translator told them in Spanish as her own tears dampened her cheeks, moments before self-deporting to Guatemala, her efforts to stay in the U.S. rejected by the federal immigration courts.
“I am not leaving defeated. I will come back for you.”
The Rev. Frank O’Loughlin, who founded the Guatemalan-Maya Center in Lake Worth Beach where Perez worked for years, gathered her children — Eliza, 21, Jessica, 18, Romeo, 15, and Cynthia, 13 — and their friends for a farewell prayer. Travelers bound for other destinations rushed around them through the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport terminal.
Then Perez, who has lived in the U.S. since she was a teenager, was gone.
Olga Perez translated rare Mayan dialect for agencies across Florida
Perez was one of the few translators of an indigenous Mayan dialect in Florida. She worked with police departments, the courts and nonprofits statewide. Her work even helped spare a Guatemalan immigrant from criminal charges in the 2024 heart-attack death of a police officer near Jacksonville.
Now 47, she arrived in the U.S. in 1997 after Guatemala’s civil war and genocide on indigenous communities devastated the Maya population, including her community. Perez filed for asylum but her case was dismissed and she remained undocumented.
Perez had been in custody at the Eloy Detention Center in Arizona since November, when the Florida Highway Patrol pulled over her family’s landscaping truck on Interstate 95 near Lake Worth Beach. Perez does not have a criminal record and was not driving the vehicle when FHP deputies detained her in front of two of her children.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers had taken Perez’s husband into custody two months before her detention, while he worked a landscaping job in Lake Worth Beach. He was deported to Guatemala this year.
Perez’s case is part of a growing number involving undocumented immigrants who are detained and deported without having criminal records. President Donald Trump, in promising to deliver the largest mass deportation in U.S. history, said his administration’s efforts would target those wanted for crimes.
After seven months in custody, a federal immigration judge on June 3 rejected a request by Perez’s attorney to stay with her family in the U.S. and gave her the options either of deporting herself or to be deported by ICE.
Perez opted to self-deport in order to return to the U.S. in the future, likely at least five years down the line. She decided for her children to stay in Palm Beach County instead of moving to Guatemala, where they would live in a rural town without access to schools, hospitals or even a reliable internet connection.
Now, the four U.S. born children will have to fend for themselves.
“What hurts the most is being separated from my children, again,” Perez said in Spanish. “My children were born here, and I can’t put them at risk by taking them to Guatemala.”
She added: “I’m not a criminal, I have my head high and I just have to fight for my family. I have my conscience clean.”
Translators children are U.S. citizens, will remain in Florida
Perez’s eldest daughter, Eliza gave up plans to attend Palm Beach State College to run her father’s landscaping business to pay rent and cover bills. She also takes care of her three younger siblings.
Through efforts of the Guatemala-Mayan center, the judge allowed Perez to spend two weeks with her family in Lake Worth Beach before she had to return to Guatemala. During that time, Perez cuddled with her children and cooked them her signature dish: carne asada with handmade tortillas.
On July 6, however, the day Perez had dreaded finally arrived.
As the boarding time approached, Perez took turns hugging and kissing her children, her sister, her nephew and nearly a dozen of her colleagues from the Guatemala-Mayan Center who came to say their final goodbyes.
Perez held each person in a long, tight embrace. Most were unable to utter words, letting streams of tears roll down their cheeks. Many came back for a second and third hug.
The group slowly walked her to the security gates. Perez’s children stood in tears as they blew kisses and waved their mother goodbye.
“My mom is so strong,” Jessica said. “Even though she is going back, she knows we are not giving up until she comes back home.”
“We love you Olga,” several people shouted from the terminal before Perez disappeared in the crowd.
Valentina Palm covers immigration and West Palm Beach for The Palm Beach Post. Email her at vpalm@pbpost.com and follow her on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, at @ValenPalmB.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: ‘I will come back,’ self-deporting mom tells children over tears, sobs
Reporting by Valentina Palm, Palm Beach Post / Palm Beach Post
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Valentina Palm, Palm Beach Post | USA TODAY Network
