How much more of the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement-fueled drip-by-drip destruction can Palm Beach County and other communities across the country stand? Olga Perez of Lake Worth Beach is just latest known victim facing deportation in the political perversion that used to pass for federal immigration policy.
The word “victim” isn’t used lightly here. Perez is not the criminal ICE officials continue to claim drives their round-up of undocumented immigrants. She was, and still is, one of the few translators of a rare Mayan dialect in Florida. Her work with Florida agencies, nonprofits and local hospitals has helped many negotiate the state’s legal, education and health care systems, not to mention those public and private agencies in Florida responsible for provding those services.
Perez arrived in the U.S. seeking asylum more than 20 years ago but, yes, she remained undocumented.
Perez also ran a group for domestic-violence victims, helped start The Guatemalan-Maya Center’s food distribution program and organized activities for children. During the COVID-19 pandemic, she translated federal Centers of Disease Control and Prevention guidelines related to vaccines into Mam (one of over 22 indigenous Mayan languages spoken in Guatemala) for indigenous communities nationwide.
Not exactly “the worst of the worst.”
It didn’t matter. On June 3, a federal immigration judge gave Perez the option of either deporting herself or leaving it up to ICE to send her back to Guatemala. Either way, the move seperates Perez from her four U.S.-citizen children and robs her home of the type of individual that any American citizen should choose to emulate, not deport.
ICE’s numbers game not helping America
What started as a narrow jail-transfer pipeline by ICE to deport actual criminals became a numbers game of “at-large” community arrests. The change prompted the agency to use state and local law enforcement to make arrests at courthouses, schools and worksites, and resulted in a 2,450% surge in the daily detention of immigrants with completely clean records, according to a 2026 American Immigration Council study on ICE operations.
According to TRAC, a Syracuse University data collection agency, an estimated 5,200 of these detainees are held in Florida, a state that has enthusiastically supported the Trump administration’s deportment policies, going as far as to spend more than $460 million on Alligator Alcatraz, the controversial detention center in the Florida Everglades.
Victor Chaclan was one of those statisics. His arrest followed an all-too familiar script, but he was one of the fortunate ones. Like Perez, Chaclan was picked up during a traffic stop by Florida Highway Patrol, detained and turned over to ICE. Like Perez, Chaclan was no criminal. He was a father, contractor and worship leader living in West Palm Beach.
During Chaclan’s time in detention, his wife and son kept the business going, while he made good use of his time. Chaclan completed 26 professional certificates through a state-provided tablet that he had access to for 15 minutes every day. Unlike Perez, Chaclan was released and allowed to return to his family and life.
Jose Gonzalez was also arrested after a traffic stop by law enforcement. Unlike Chaclan, Gonzalez was the popular manager at BiCE Ristorante, an Italian eatery in Palm Beach, where he has been employed for more than 20 years. The arrest wasn’t his family’s first run-in with ICE. In 2017, Gonzalez’ younger brother was told he would be detained at his next immigration check-in appointment. His cousin also had been detained by ICE after leaving his job at BiCE.
Perez’s deportment began as she was riding in her family’s landscaping truck when FHP stopped the vehicle. Like Gonzalez, Perez wasn’t the only one in her family detained and deported by ICE. Her husband had gone through the same dubious process of detainment months earlier.
It’s now more difficult for asylum seekers and undocumented immigrants to make claims in immigration court, where federal agents often arrest people who show up for hearings. ICE agents have arrest quotas and must rely on state and local law enforcement to make arrests, in too many cases before any extent of criminality can be determined.
Dubious immigration policies hurt local communities, robbing them of needed talent. Worse, it hurts people like Perez and far too many others who once believed in our nation’s ideals that now seem to be the stuff of fiction.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Olga Perez deportation highlights ICE hypocrisy | Editorial
Reporting by Palm Beach Post / Palm Beach Post
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Palm Beach Post | USA TODAY Network
