Olga Perez, one of the few translators of a rare Mayan dialect in Florida, will be deported to her native Guatemala next month, leaving behind her four U.S.-citizen children living in Lake Worth Beach.
Federal Immigration Judge Benjamin S. Kuipers on June 3 rejected a request by Perez’s attorney to stay with her family in the U.S. and gave her the options either of deporting herself or to be deported by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. A copy of the judge’s ruling wasn’t immediately available.
Perez, whose work as a translator has taken her to courts, schools and hospitals across Florida, chose to return to Guatemala and is expected to fly there by July 6, according to Mariana Blanco, who leads the Guatemalan-Maya Center in Lake Worth Beach.
“Olga’s deportation is devastating. Not just for her four American children, who are now orphaned through the cruelty of the court, but for so many agencies across Florida who relied on Olga’s help to provide accessible services,” Blanco said. Mother of U.S. citizens deported despite not having criminal record
ICE detains Olga Perez, translator of a rare Guatemalan-Maya language Olga Perez awaits a March 4, 2026, hearing in Arizona about whether she will be deported to Guatemala or return to her four U.S.-citizen children.
Perez, 47, has been in custody at the Eloy Detention Center in Arizona since November, when the Florida Highway Patrol pulled over her family’s landscaping truck on Interstate 95 near Lake Worth Beach. Perez does not have a criminal record and was not driving the vehicle when FHP deputies detained her in front of two of her children.
She arrived in the U.S. seeking asylum more than 20 years ago but remained undocumented. ICE had taken her husband into custody two months before her detention while he worked a landscaping job in Lake Worth Beach. He was deported to Guatemala this year.
Perez is part of a growing number of cases of undocumented immigrants who land in detention without having a criminal record as part of President Donald Trump’s promise to deliver the largest mass deportation in U.S. history. Many of them, like Perez, had filed for asylum but never had their case heard.
Mayan translator who helps police, courts faces deportation from U.S.
Olga Perez of Lake Worth Beach, one of Florida’s few Mayan translators, faces deportation, leaving her four U.S.-citizen children vulnerable.
Blanco said the deportation ruling has been overwhelming for Perez’s four-U.S. born children. They have struggled to make ends meet since their parents were detained last year, she said.
Blanco said her eldest daughter, 21-year-old Eliza, gave up plans to attend Palm Beach State College so she could run her father’s landscaping business to pay rent and cover bills. She also takes care of her siblings, Jessica, 18, Romeo, 15, and Cynthia, 13.
Perez’s children want to stay in Palm Beach County instead of moving to Guatemala with their parents, where they would live in a rural town without access to schools or a reliable internet connection, shutting them off from the outside world, Blanco said.
Perez arrived to the U.S. in 1997 when she was 18, fleeing Guatemala’s civil war and the genocide on indigenous communities that devastated several Mayan populations, including her tribe. Perez has lived in Palm Beach County ever since and has never returned to Guatemala.
Over the last 20 years, Perez has become a crucial member of Florida’s Guatemalan community by serving as one of the few translators of Mam, one of over 22 indigenous Mayan languages spoken in Guatemala.
Blanco said Perez has translated for victims and investigators at the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office; for students and counselors at local schools and the Children Services Council; for patients and doctors in local hospitals and federally funded health clinics; and in the courts across Florida.
Recently, Perez played a key role in the case of Virgilio Aguilar Mendez, a 19-year-old Guatemalan farmworker who in 2024 was cleared of criminal charges in the heart-attack death of a Florida police officer near Jacksonville, a case that drew national attention.
Blanco said the loss of Perez leaves the center with a crucial void as it tries to serve the people who come to it for help with legal questions, government services, job training and child care.
“It is shameful that we are recklessly spending tax-payer dollars on detaining Olga instead on focusing on people who have committed violent crimes. Ripping hardworking mothers and leaving children vulnerable and alone — there’s nothing honorable about that,” Blanco said.
The Guatemalan-Maya Center has set up an online account to help care for Perez’s children. To donate, go online to www.GoFundMe.com and search for “Help Olga reunite with her children.”
What’s more odd is that I’m from the UK and could access