Yarlidis Goez and her children says goodbye to friends and the kids' grandparents on Dec. 2, 2025 while immigration officials wait for them at the gate of an Immigration and Customs Enforcement office on Tucson’s south side.Danyelle Khmara / AZPM News Outside the gate of an Immigration and Customs Enforcement office on Tucson’s south side, early Tuesday morning, Yarlidis Goez and her four young children said goodbye to friends and family, including the children's grandparents. Friend of the family Lucia Vindiola said Goez decided to self-deport for fear she’d be detained and separated from her children otherwise, the way she saw her husband detained and sent back to Colombia in January. “She saw him being handcuffed and detained and taken,” Vindiola said. “So she did not want to see that again. She did not want her kids to see her handcuffed and detained.” Vindiola said immigration authorities told Goez that if she self-deported they would make sure she wasn’t separated from her children, as people often are when they are detained and deported. ICE did not comment or answer questions about this family’s situation. The Department of Homeland Security began offering incentives earlier this year to undocumented migrants who self-deport, including $1,000 and covering the cost of travel. DHS says 1.6 million people have self-deported since January. After immigration authorities brought the family through the building’s gates on Tuesday, Vindiola told reporters that Goez didn’t want to leave her kids’ grandparents, or the friends, church and community she had established. “She has four precious cargos with her, and she is a wonderful being,” Vindiola said. “She has shared so much and cared for her kids so well that she would have been just a blessing as a person here in the States.”