Apopka children, lawmakers seek return of Guatemalan immigrants seeking visa
The children of two Guatemalan immigrants called Friday for their parents' return, after their father was deported and their mother detained despite their years-long pursuit of a visa meant to protect victims of crime.
Dozens of people, including Central Florida lawmakers and activists, gathered outside the ICE field office in Orlando to speak to reporters on the plight of Esvin Juarez and Rosmeri Miranda. The couple have lived in the United States for 24 years, settling in Apopka with their four children.
It is the latest controversy in the Orlando region involving the apprehension of immigrants who — though they entered the country illegally — would previously have been considered to have an opportunity to stay in the U.S.
Juarez, who owns a concrete construction business, was detained on May 30 during a check-in with ICE, sent to facilities in Miami and Texas — and then deported to Guatemala on Saturday. Miranda was detained this week.
'He's been here over 20 years, and he's been working out under the sun making concrete slabs, and he's been able to build his business for the last 20 years,' said Beverly Juarez, 21, the couple's oldest child. 'There is a chance for [President Donald Trump] to right this wrong, to bring back my father and to stop my mother's deportation because they are not criminals. They are pillars of the community.'
Beverly Juarez, who like her younger siblings was born in the U.S., said her parents were well along in the process of getting a so-called U-visa after her father was attacked in his company work yard by a gunman in 2021. That visa grants victims of crime legal status if they cooperate with law enforcement.
Juarez unsuccessfully challenged his removal in federal court, court records show, while Miranda continues to dispute her detention since being taken into custody this week. Her case is being considered by the U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals.
Among the lawmakers standing with the family on Friday was state Rep. Johanna Lopez, D-Orlando, who called Juarez's and Miranda's detentions an illegal 'act of cruelty' given their eligibility for the U-visa.
With their parents gone, Beverly Juarez now faces having to care for her siblings, ages 15, 13 and 9.
'Imagine the fear they feel, imagine the trauma they are enduring,' Lopez said. 'What message are we sending when we criminalize the mother surviving and seeking justice?'
Before Miranda's detention, she and her four children turned to social media to raise awareness of ICE's efforts to deport her and her husband. Since June 2, the family has posted videos to TikTok with updates in English and Spanish on both cases.
The most recent videos directly implored Trump to act despite his emphasis on removing undocumented immigrants in the first months of his second administration. While White House officials say they are focused on deporting criminals and immigrants with ties to gang ties, many who have since been detained and deported don't have such histories.
An ICE spokesperson did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment. A lawyer for Juarez who now represents Miranda in federal court also did not return a message.
It's not impossible for immigrants mistakenly detained for removal to be released. On Thursday, lawyers for two women living in Osceola County announced they were released from ICE custody after spending two months in a facility in Texas facing removal to Colombia — despite having an active asylum application, social security number, work permit and driver's license.
Across the country, ICE officials have conducted operations to capture immigrants and process them for removal. In Florida, local law enforcement agencies and county jails have signed agreements known as 287(g) to assist immigration authorities, which a new state law now requires. Gov. Ron DeSantis' administration has said local leaders who refuse could be removed from office.
County Commissioner Nicole Wilson, who attended the protest, was one of two 'no' votes when Orange commissioners approved the agreement in March.
'We were told we had to do it. Several of my colleagues believed that they had to do it — they've been bullied to do it,' Wilson said. 'If I don't believe it's representing my community, then it's not an agreement — so I do not agree, I am not complicit.'
The other dissenting vote was Commissioner Kelly Martinez-Semrad, who at Friday's protest said she is pushing to put the matter back on the agenda.
'There are those of us who are not afraid to be removed when we're holding the flag of the United States of America and standing with the founders of our country, who are all immigrants,' she said. 'So please stand with us.'
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