Apopka business owner Esvin Juarez is in a Texas detention center and his wife faces possible deportation, too, after they showed up for an appointment Friday at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement office in Orlando.
Their four children -- who are U.S citizens -- are pleading for help. Millions of people have heard the Juarez family’s story. Videos in English and Spanish were posted on social media.
In the English version, they've seen 9-year-old Valery make a plea for help before laying her head on her mother’s shoulder.
"We need our parents," she said. "Please don't report them. We need them really bad, because we can't do anything without them.
This longtime Apopka family of U.S. citizen children and parents waiting for permanent legal status is caught up in the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown.
Ankle bracelet and plane ticket
Early Wednesday morning, 21-year-old Beverly Juarez, her younger brothers Cesar, 15, and Josue, 13, and little sister Valery are standing in a small crowd holding signs outside an ICE office in Orlando.
Their mother, Rosemari Miranda, is waiting in a line across Delegates Drive holding, as instructed by ICE, a $154 airplane ticket dated June 14 to Guatemala City.
She’ll have another appointment Thursday to get the ankle bracelet she got last week removed. Juarez doesn't know if her mom will be detained then -- like her father was when they reported for that routine check-in.
The family says Esvin Juarez was sent to the Krome Detention Center in Miami and then to El Paso, Texas.
Beverly Juarez said her mother and father haven't been hiding -- they've been meeting with ICE officials since 2010.
She said they have complied with everything.
"And up until this day, we are still in compliance," she said. "And so I'm hoping that, you know, someone in authority has to see the injustice happening, because my father is not a criminal and my mom ... is not either."
Actually, her dad was a victim of violent crime at his company's work yard in Apopka in 2021. So last year, ICE gave him and his wife its initial stamp of approval for a U visa, which is for immigrant victims of crime who are cooperating with law enforcement.
But the U visa is pending -- it can take years -- and hasn't been issued yet.
Who are the Juarez family?
Rosemari is a stay-at-home mom who came to the U.S. with Esvin illegally from Guatemala 24 years ago. They moved to Apopka and had four children.
Their lawyer said they have work permits now. Esvin Juarez runs a concrete construction company -- with his brother and old eldest daughter -- that employs 10 people, according to the family.
Beverly Juarez said her parents were realizing the American Dream. Her dad has a lot of ambition, she said, and doesn't give in to fear.
"He would just leap over it and just move forward," she said. "No matter what. Move forward. You fall? You get back up."
Detention center rigamarole
The family spoke with Central Florida Public Media for an interview Tuesday evening at their home, where one of their lawyers -- Grisel Ybarra in Miami -- shared details of their case over the phone. Since the father’s surprise detention on Friday, they’ve been trying to file paperwork to pause their deportations. But ICE officials in Miami directed them to El Paso, where they FedExed the application.
An official there wouldn't accept it, saying the paperwork had to be filed in Miami after all.
By Wednesday evening, though, Ybarra said ICE officials in Miramar had accepted Esvin Juarez's stay application for review and adjudication. She said that means he — and his wife in turn — wouldn't usually be deported during that process.
Ybarra said she's been working on their case with ICE for years, getting extensions as their issues are resolved. Not so this year. At the appointment on Friday, Ybarra says the ICE officer told their other attorney that things are different now with the new administration.
"I voted for Donald Trump," Ybarra said. "I voted for the borders to be closed. I voted for the criminals to be deported. I voted for legal immigration, but I did not vote for power to be given to mean people to do bad things to good people. I didn't vote for this part."
During this family crisis, Beverly Juarez said her siblings are her top priority.
She said the removal orders were “a big shock,” but as with other immigrant families, it’s something she’s always thought about.
"I just have to keep going," she said, "because that's what my father would have done."
A spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security acknowledged a request for information involving this case and said he was looking into it.
