{"id":331884,"date":"2026-07-07T14:51:27","date_gmt":"2026-07-07T14:51:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/331884\/"},"modified":"2026-07-07T14:51:27","modified_gmt":"2026-07-07T14:51:27","slug":"guatemalan-community-leader-in-palm-beach-county-self-deports-to-home-country-sun-sentinel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/331884\/","title":{"rendered":"Guatemalan community leader in Palm Beach County self-deports to home country \u2013 Sun Sentinel"},"content":{"rendered":"

Amid tears and a deep sense of loss, Olga Perez, an undocumented Guatemalan known for helping government agencies in Palm Beach County as a language interpreter, boarded a JetBlue Airways plane Monday to return to her native country.<\/p>\n

It is a trip rooted in her decision to self-deport when a federal immigration judge ordered her to leave after 30 years residing in South Florida.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnly God knows why,\u201d Perez said while standing at a TSA checkpoint line. \u201cI am here almost 30 years. I tried everything.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her four children \u2014 all U.S. citizens aged 13 to 21 \u2014 are remaining behind in Lake Worth Beach. Her husband, who was deported a number of months ago, resides in Guatemala.<\/p>\n

Supporters including people from the Guatemalan-Maya Center, which assists migrant workers who toil in the agricultural fields of Palm Beach County, gathered Monday morning at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport to send her off. The center helped arrange for her brief return to Lake Worth Beach after her release in June from a privately-operated detention facility in Arizona.<\/p>\n

The judge allowed her to spend a short time with her family members prior to her departure for Central America.<\/p>\n

Fleeing violence, via the desert<\/p>\n

Perez arrived in South Florida three decades ago as a teenager who fled anti-Indigenous violence in Guatemala\u2019s highlands as the Central American nation endured a 36-year civil war that devastated the country. She traveled through a stretch of desert on foot via the U.S. border in the company of \u201ccoyotes,\u201d human smugglers who bring migrants into the country for exorbitant fees.<\/p>\n

It is not a memory, her eldest daughter Eliza said, that she wants to talk about.<\/p>\n

Olga Perez is one of the few people in Florida who have indigenous Mam language skills. Over the years, she used them to help local law enforcement and social service agencies communicate with migrants from Guatemala.<\/p>\n

But last November, Perez was arrested and sent to a government detention center in Arizona run by a private company.\u00a0 Several weeks ago, after a judge there ordered her deportation, she was given $50, dropped at a Greyhound bus station\u00a0 and told to return to Florida for a final check-in in Delray Beach, said Christopher W. McVoy, a Lake Worth Beach commissioner. A supporter of the Maya center, McVoy has followed the case since its inception, and said he helped facilitate Olga Perez\u2019s\u00a0 return to Florida.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe has a lot of support from family and the Guatemalan Maya Center, but there are tens of thousands of cases<\/a> that are equally heartbreaking,\u201d he told the South Florida Sun Sentinel. \u201cShe was an interpreter for the PBSO, the sheriff\u2019s office. She\u2019d help out on a number of things.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe most illegal things they\u2019ve done is drive without a license,\u201d McVoy said of migrants being arrested around the region. \u201cThe amount of resources and American taxpayer money we are putting in \u2026 is just causing harm and heartbreak. It\u2019s not making our country safer. It\u2019s not making anything better.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Olga<\/p>\n

Olga Perez, right, longtime translator for the Guatemala Maya Center in Lake Worth Beach, hugs her sister, Mirna, as she prepares to board a flight to Guatemala City on Monday at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport. Perez is self-deporting after being detained by ICE. She leaves four children behind. (Joe Cavaretta\/South Florida Sun Sentinel)<\/p>\n

\"Olga<\/p>\n

Olga Perez, longtime translator for the Guatemala Maya Center in Lake Worth Beach, says a final goodbye to family and friends as she prepares to board a flight to Guatemala City on Monday at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport. A refugee from violence in her country decades ago, she self-deported after being detained by ICE. (Joe Cavaretta\/South Florida Sun Sentinel)<\/p>\n

\"Olga<\/p>\n

Olga Perez holds her children’s hands as she waits to board a flight to Guatemala City on Monday. Perez is self-deporting and leaves four children behind. (Joe Cavaretta\/South Florida Sun Sentinel)<\/p>\n

\"Olga<\/p>\n

Olga Perez, right, longtime translator for the Guatemala Maya Center in Lake Worth Beach, prays with the center’s founder, Father Frank, as she prepares to board a flight to Guatemala City on Monday, July 6, 2026, at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport. Perez is self-deporting after being detained by ICE. She leaves four children behind. (Joe Cavaretta\/South Florida Sun Sentinel)<\/p>\n

\"Olga<\/p>\n

Olga Perez, longtime translator for the Guatemala Maya Center in Lake Worth Beach, reacts after saying goodbye to her children as she prepares to board a flight to Guatemala City on Monday, July 6, 2026, at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport. Perez is self-deporting after being detained by ICE. She leaves four children behind. (Joe Cavaretta\/South Florida Sun Sentinel)<\/p>\n

\"Olga<\/p>\n

Olga Perez, right, hugs her son Romeo, 16, as she prepares to board a flight to Guatemala City on Monday at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport. (Joe Cavaretta\/South Florida Sun Sentinel)<\/p>\n

\"Olga<\/p>\n

Olga Perez, longtime translator for the Guatemala Maya Center in Lake Worth Beach, prepares to board a flight to Guatemala City on Monday at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport. (Joe Cavaretta\/South Florida Sun Sentinel)<\/p>\n

\"Olga<\/p>\n

Olga Perez, right, longtime translator for the Guatemala Maya Center in Lake Worth Beach, hugs her sister, Mirna, as she prepares to board a flight to Guatemala City on Monday, July 6, 2026, at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport. Perez is self-deporting after being detained by ICE. She leaves four children behind. (Joe Cavaretta\/South Florida Sun Sentinel)<\/p>\n

Show Caption<\/p>\n

1 of 8<\/p>\n

Olga Perez, right, longtime translator for the Guatemala Maya Center in Lake Worth Beach, hugs her sister, Mirna, as she prepares to board a flight to Guatemala City on Monday at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport. Perez is self-deporting after being detained by ICE. She leaves four children behind. (Joe Cavaretta\/South Florida Sun Sentinel)<\/p>\n

Expand<\/a>
\nAgonizing decision<\/p>\n

Perez was given until Monday to appeal the judge\u2019s ruling.<\/p>\n

Instead, her family said, they made the agonizing decision for her to return to her homeland, where she will be assisted by a Salesian mission in Guatemala City.<\/p>\n

At the airport Monday, Eliza, the oldest daughter, said she, her mother, siblings and other relatives engaged \u201cin a long, long discussion. We finally decided self-deportation would be the best option.\u201d<\/p>\n

Olga Perez\u2019s arrest last November followed the arrest of her husband, Romeo, who was stopped by state troopers in his landscaping truck in September. Eliza said he spent a two-week stint at Alligator Alcatraz<\/a> in the Everglades before being transported to a federal detention center in Georgia. From there, he was placed aboard a deportation flight to Guatemala.<\/p>\n

In two weeks, the children expect to fly south for a visit. In the meantime, it\u2019s Eliza who is running the landscaping business.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe landscape business helps us pay our bills,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Amid tears and a deep sense of loss, Olga Perez, an undocumented Guatemalan known for helping government agencies…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":331885,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[506,112,28,29,249,251,250,4458,114,266,115,557,99,109],"class_list":["post-331884","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fort-lauderdale","tag-broward-county","tag-crime-and-public-safety","tag-florida","tag-florida-news","tag-fort-lauderdale","tag-fort-lauderdale-headlines","tag-fort-lauderdale-news","tag-lake-worth-beach","tag-latest-headlines","tag-local-news","tag-news","tag-palm-beach-county","tag-politics","tag-social"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/331884","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=331884"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/331884\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/331885"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=331884"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=331884"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=331884"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}