MIAMI -- The parents of two South Florida teens who have been fighting deportation were forced to leave the United States on Tuesday.

Related Content: Video

Juan and Alex Gomez made national headlines in July when their family was arrested for being in the country illegally. Classmates of the Gomez brothers went to Washington, D.C., asking lawmakers to grant their asylum.

The family was temporarily released from federal custody, but on Tuesday, the Gomez brothers' mother, father and 84-year-old grandmother were forced to leave the United States.

"I feel pain, of course, sorrow," Juan Gomez told NBC 6 as he sat at Miami International Airport with his family.

Liliana and Julio Cesar Gomez came to the United States in 1990, when Juan was 2 years old. Their work permits expired in 2002 and the family has been living in the country illegally for five years.

"I don't know what I'm going to do in Colombia," said Julio Cesar Gomez, speaking in Spanish. "I don't know where we're going to live."

Cheryl Little with the Florida Advocacy Center has been trying to keep the family together.

"Instead of deporting hard-working, wonderful families like this family, we should be trying to round up terrorists and drug dealers and ax murderers and people who truly intend to do us harm," Little said.

Juan and Alex Gomez are in the process of trying to become U.S. residents. They have until March 2009 to obtain green cards.

Officials said there is little chance that the brothers' family members will be allowed to return to the United States.

"It's so un-American for us to be tearing families apart like this," Little said. "This makes no sense."