The children of a respected Guatemalan community leader in Lake Worth Beach are missing school and work, living with constant anxiety as repeated immigration court delays keep their undocumented mother detained for months.
In November, just two days before Thanksgiving, Florida Highway Patrol officers pulled Olga Perez from her family’s landscaping truck and handcuffed her in front of her children. She was then sent to a detention center in Arizona, where she has remained ever since.
The father, an undocumented Guatemalan like Olga, was detained in September and is now locked up in Georgia.
Perez, a revered Mam (Mayan) language translator, arrived 30 years ago as a teenager fleeing anti-Indigenous violence in Guatemala. She became a vital bridge in Lake Worth Beach, helping the Mam-speaking community access legal, medical and social services.
Her four U.S.-born children and supporters gathered at the Guatemalan-Maya Center Wednesday. Six people — the children and staff at the Guatemalan-Maya Center — were going to testify for her release from a detention center ahead of a scheduled online deportation hearing.
Two people had already testified in previous hearings.
The youngest child wiped tears from her eyes in front of the computer’s camera as the tension in the room grew, engulfed by chronic stress, uncertainty, and disappointment.
Then, at the last minute, an immigration judge postponed it for the fifth time, disrupting their lives again. Her son, Romeo Perez, told WLRN he’s “disappointed but not surprised.”
He’s especially worried about his mother's declining health, as she is pre-diabetic.
“The results are the results,” said Romeo, who wants her out of detention regardless of the immigration court outcome.
“As long as she’s out of there [detention]. She told me before that place is not a good place for her. They treat her wrong. They treat her horribly. I just want her out of there.”
“But I also want her in my life here in the U.S.”
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In a national, high-profile 2024 court case, Olga played a key role in the case of Virgilio Aguilar Mendez, a 19-year-old Guatemalan farmworker who was cleared of criminal charges in the heart-attack death of a Florida officer near Jacksonville.
In the past, Olga also worked with victims and investigators for the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office and helped counsel families in public schools.
The next hearing in front of a Trump-appointed judge is scheduled for April 13, according to the center.
Her years-long community service and reputation did not prevent her from being detained. Florida’s local and state police departments lead the nation in signed written agreements to assist the Trump administration’s mass deportation agenda.
There were more than 20,000 ICE arrests in Florida last year as part of the immigration crackdown. Arrests in the state more than tripled, according to government data obtained through public records.
And the ICE raids in Lake Worth Beach have created a ripple effect, leaving the Perez family and their children with a deep sense of emotional and financial insecurity after being separated.
Shattered hopes
Romeo and his siblings had hoped a decision would be made during spring break, but those hopes were shattered.
The ordeal has also shifted the children’s priorities. With both parents under detention, the family's tax-paying landscaping business is now in the hands of the children with the support of family members. Their father has an unrelated case involving a misdemeanor.
The recently scheduled online deportation hearing, at least for their mother, would have given them some answers and a way to move forward.
“You get really nervous and you just hope for the best,” said Jessica Perez, one of their daughters. “Today I was really hoping we could get through it so we would know if my mom is coming back or not. But waiting just gives us more stress and more worries.”
The uncertainty persisted throughout her time in school. Jessica, a high school senior, found out her father had been detained during class through her iPhone location tracker.
“I always check where they're at. Either they're at work or they're home,” she said. “I always check. And that day I knew that he was taken because his location said somewhere else. He was far from Palm Beach.”
Jessica said it’s one battle at a time, as the family focuses on getting Olga home. “I never expected both of my parents to be taken,” Jessica said.
“I wish for her to come back to her children, because I want her to be there for me when I get my college acceptance,” she added. “And for when I graduate.”
