MIAMI — Beatriz, 12, who was born and raised in West Palm Beach, stood anxiously in the Miami International Airport concourse on Oct 9, with her entire life’s belongings stuffed in a backpack and a suitcase.
She would soon board a plane for the first time in her life that afternoon, and it would take her to a country she had never been to before. There, she would be reunited with her mother, who had been detained in August by U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement and deported to Guatemala on Oct. 4.
Along with Beatriz stood two other children, siblings Lissette, 10, and Antonio, 6. Their mother was picked up by ICE at their Lake Worth Beach home in September and also was deported to Guatemala. Their father, Mauricio, hugged them tight, whispered “Te amo” — Spanish for “I love you” — and gently wiped tears from their cheeks one last time.
After waving goodbye and seeing them disappear behind security doors, Mauricio broke down sobbing. The Rev. Frank O’Loughlin, founder of the Guatemalan-Maya Center in Lake Worth Beach, wrapped his hands around Mauricio and held him in prayer.
A few feet away from the group, three U.S. Border Patrol agents escorting three men along the concourse who seemed to be getting deported in a commercial flight.
“They already took their mother, it’s only a matter of time when they deport me and I don’t want them to be left here abandoned,” Mauricio told Oscar De La Guardia, an attorney with the Copper Levenson Law firm in Miami. De La Guardia traveled with the children on Oct. 9 along with Sahari Orozco.
The Guatemalan Mayan Center completed the paperwork and arranged flights to reunite the children with their mothers.
The other side of the story when parents are detained, deported: What about their children?
Across the United States, the Trump administration’s promised “largest mass deportation” is playing out in a myriad of ways and settings.
Some have been captured on cellphone videos and virally distributed through social media. Others, like the departure of three children in an airport packed with tourists and business travelers, were far less noticed but equally painful for those involved.
Mariana Blanco, the director of the Guatemalan Maya Center, said the three are part of a group of children, many of whom are U.S. citizens like Beatriz, who were left behind in the United States after their parents were detained in the immigration enforcement operations Trump has ordered.
Without either parents or legal guardians, many of these children are forced to face a difficult dilemma. Either they also leave the United States and move to countries their families fled years ago or they remain in the U.S. alone.
The Oct. 9 flight was the second departure organized by the Lake Worth Beach nonprofit. Last week, De La Guardia traveled with seven siblings from Lake Worth Beach, six of who were U.S. citizens but whose mother and father had both been detained and deported by ICE this year.
“What the government is doing is reprehensible,” Blanco said. “They are detaining people, many who have been following their legal cases for years, leaving their kids vulnerable. “Last week we helped reunite six U.S citizens to be with their mom in Guatemala. This week we sent another U.S child — all to a country that is foreign to them, forcing them to leave everything behind.”
“They are going back to a place where resources are scarce and where school is not always an option,” Blanco added. “This shouldn’t be happening.”
Girl arrived at home from school but her mother was not there
Beatriz figured out something was wrong when she came home from school one August afternoon and her mother wasn’t there. By nighttime, a neighbor came over to break the news that her mother had been picked up by ICE agents after they pulled over a landscaping truck and detained multiple day laborers.
For the next two months, Beatriz was moved from house to house, staying with neighbors, friends and distant family members. Beatriz was walking an hour to get to school before Blanco heard of her case and got her school transportation and temporary housing.
“The only person she trusted in this world was taken, and her life quickly changed,” Blanco said. “Even though she is going to a country that is completely foreign, for her home is where her mom is.”
“She’s been stripped away from her childhood,” Blanco added.
In Guatemala, the children will face a lifestyle and transition into a community that, though of their ancestry, will seem foreign to them.
Beatriz, Lissette, and Antonio are descendants from indigenous Mayan tribes in Guatemala, and they will now live in rural villages that lack internet access and are as far as eight and 10 hours from the capital of Guatemala City.
Next week, instead of going back to class in their elementary and middle schools in Lake Worth Beach, they will be attending small-country schools where tuition is only free until sixth grade.
“I think for, like, especially indigenous Maya folks, it’s important to remember that they’re a population that’s heavily persecuted by their government,” Blanco said. “They go back to very isolated places and very rural areas that are still in conflict with the government.”
Valentina Palm covers Royal Palm Beach, Wellington, Greenacres, Palm Springs and other western communities in Palm Beach County for The Palm Beach Post. Email her at vpalm@pbpost.com. Support local journalism: Subscribe today.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: ‘Left abandoned’: Three children escorted to Guatemala after their mothers were deported
Reporting by Valentina Palm and Diamond Walker, Palm Beach Post / Palm Beach Post
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