Mayan translator self-deports to Guatemala, leaving four U.S.-citizen children
Jan 31, 2026·Location: Florida
Country of origin: Colombia

Olga Perez, a 47-year-old translator of a rare Mayan dialect who arrived in the U.S. in 1997 after Guatemala's civil war, self-deported in July 2026 after her asylum case was dismissed and efforts to stay were rejected by immigration courts. She had been detained since November 2025 at the Eloy Detention Center in Arizona following a traffic stop, and her husband had been taken into ICE custody two months earlier while working a landscaping job. Perez said goodbye to her children—Eliza, 21, Jessica, 18, Romeo, 15, and Cynthia, 13—at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, with the eldest daughter continuing to run the family's landscaping business to support her siblings. Perez had no criminal record and had worked with police departments, courts and nonprofits across Florida, including helping clear a Guatemalan immigrant of criminal charges in a 2024 case.
Sources
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