A University of Central Florida student from Apopka, the oldest of her family’s four U.S. born children, is pleading with the Trump administration to return their father from Guatemala and halt the deportation of their mom.
Beverly Juarez, 21, was joined Friday by about 40 protesters in front of a Customs and Immigration Enforcement field office on Delegates Drive in Orlando.
They chanted slogans such as “No hate! No fear! Immigrants are welcome here!” and held handmade signs and American flags. Juarez held a poster saying “Bring back ‘Pony’ Papa Juarez
As Central Florida Public Media has been reporting, her father, Esvin Juarez, is an Apopka business owner who was detained two weeks ago at an ICE appointment and then deported to Guatemala. Her mother, Rosmeri Miranda, was detained Thursday and could be deported soon. Beverly Juarez said Friday morning that she was in the Orange County Jail.
Her parents entered illegally from Guatemala more than 20 years ago. But since 2010, she said, they've been meeting with ICE and doing things the right way. The couple had a verified and pending application for a U visa -- for victims of crime who cooperate with law enforcement -- which would have allowed them to stay.
Beverly Juarez focused on President Donald Trump's recent remarks on the importance of long-serving, undocumented workers at farms and hotels. His comments to reporters at the White House were about the needs of farmers and the hospitality industry.
“Our farmers are being hurt badly by, you know, they have very good workers. They've worked for them for 20 years,” he said. “They're not citizens, but they've turned out to be, you know, great, and we're gonna have to do something about that. We can't take farmers and take all their people and send them back because they don't have maybe what they're supposed to have.”
Her father didn’t work in those particular industries, Beverly Juarez said. “But 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 this business for the last 20 years.
“And so there is a chance for the president 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.”
