On a recent morning at Miami International Airport, a group of eight young children held on to their stuffed animals — and each other — as they prepared for their early morning flight to Guatemala.
All of the children, some of who are U.S. citizens, have had their parents detained or deported — and they were being flown to be reunited with them. The youngest child is only one year old.
As they anxiously wait, volunteers from the Guatemalan-Maya Center in Palm Beach County sit on the airport floor preparing documents and packing backpacks with coloring books, stuffed animals, crayons, snacks, toys and sweaters.
“A lot of these kids have never been on a plane before. They are going to fly for the first time without their parents, and so we try to make the process as comfortable as possible for them,” said Lindsay McElroy, lead immigrant justice officer at the center.
A nonprofit that has served uprooted children and families for over 30 years, the Guatemalan-Maya Center has now flown 45 children to Latin America since the Trump administration started its immigration crackdown. The center assists families by connecting them with legal services through their partnerships and securing the children with travel documents, as well as their flight tickets.
McElroy said that the center knew they needed to step in after a massive raid in February 2025 in Palm Beach County.
“Then we realized this wasn't gonna be like the first [Trump] administration. This was different," she said. "The Trump administration is breaking the law. They're unlawfully detaining our community members. And so we started preparing families for family separation instead of just teaching them their rights."
The reunification process started soon after, when the center received a call from a school employee notifying them that a 12-year-old student was going home to an empty house every day. They found out his dad had been deported.
“We stepped in immediately. We reunified him, and that was the start of this process,” said McElroy. “[After] that first reunification, more families started calling us, and we just responded to the work that is needed.”
'God is good'
For this flight, married volunteers Audra and Roger Obando were accompanying the children to Guatemala. Audra, a nurse who has worked with the center for years, believes it’s important for people to recognize the gravity of these deportations.
“I think many people are still in denial, and they don't understand how severe the situation is, and how many families are being separated, and how many children are here without their parents,” she said.
One of the eight children being flown to Guatemala was three-year-old Cristina, a U.S. citizen, whose parents were both deported to Guatemala.
Her mother was detained about a year ago. A few months later, her father left her with her aunt to attend an immigration check-in — where he was detained. The
aunt had been caring for her since, and later called the center to begin the family reunification process.
Also amongst the group were six members of a family. Ramón, 15, was traveling with sisters Mercedes, 13, Christina, 7, and Ingrid, 3, along with their mother Magdalena, who bought her own ticket and was self-deporting. They were being reunited with their father and eldest brother, who were deported a few months earlier.
One sibling, the eldest daughter, was staying back in South Florida to work and send money back home for as long as she could. But her son, one-year-old Angel, was also flying back with the group.
Christina, wearing pink and blue shoes that read "God Is Good," held tightly onto Ingrid's hand as she led the group through the airport. Mercedes, who was carrying Angel, told WLRN she wants to continue studying and follow her dreams in Guatemala. Unlike the U.S., Guatemala does not offer free public education past the sixth grade.
McElroy said that the family came to Florida legally under a Biden administration family reunification parole — but the Trump administration cut the program.
Research by the Brookings Institute estimates that around 205,000 children have likely had a parent taken into Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention since the Trump administration began.
Volunteer Maria De la Guardia said the administration's immigration policy was based on "cruelty."
“ I'm just really angry at the immigration policy of Donald Trump and of his henchmen,” she said. "They're not arresting criminals. They're taking the people who are working in the fields.”
McElroy explained that the 287(g) agreements — partnerships between U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and local law enforcement — have been devastating for the community.
“ We've had our families call the police for help, for welfare checks, for car crashes when somebody hit them, and instead of supporting them, the police have detained them and deported them. The 287(g) agreements are what is causing the trauma right now.”
She described the heartbreaking realities of these reunifications.
“These children are getting exiled from the only country they've called home. They're saying goodbye to all their family and friends they've ever known, the education they've been receiving, and they're going to some place that's completely unfamiliar to them,” she said.
Seven-year-old Abel and three-year-old Eitan were set to be reunited with their mother. Their father had cold-called the center asking for help when she was deported two months ago. The father is hoping to stay to work and support his family — but is afraid of being deported himself.
As the brothers prepared to walk through security with the group, their father watched tearfully while Father Frank O’Loughlin, the longtime executive director of the center, comforted him.
“It saddens me that they are leaving my side,” their father told WLRN.
