A Guatemalan family that has made the Bay Area home for 17 years is facing imminent deportation Friday, after exhausting all of their legal options.

Homeland Security officials said the family has had numerous chances to make their case in court, and lost. But the family's advocates say that's precisely why immigration laws must change.

Elida Perez and Sam Mejia-Reyes live in a well-kept house that looks like any other in their Novato neighborhood.

“We live like all the families here who have a dream,” said Elida.

But this family's American dream has recently turned into a nightmare as they face the possibility of being forced to leave everything they’ve built after nearly two decades.

In 1992, Elida and her husband Sam left civil war-torn Guatemala with their 1-year-old son Gilbert for a better life in the U.S.

“We cross the border like I guess thousands of people do,” said Elida. “We cross illegal and get in the country.”

Since then, Sam has worked as a carpenter, and Elida worked as a nanny for the last 17 years. The couple raised their 13-year-old daughter Helen and 4-year-old Dulce Dulsay, both U.S. citizens. They paid taxes and stayed out of trouble, living in the shadows until two years ago, when immigration agents burst in to their home and arrested them.

That started a two year deportation process for the parents, who now wear ankle bracelets. Their suitcases and boxes await their deportation to Guatemala Monday.

“I'm sad because one half of my life I'm here,” said Sam.

The Director of Immigration Policy at U.C. Berkeley's Law School, says President Obama is pushing for comprehensive immigration reform next year. Too late for this family.

On Thursday afternoon, families and immigration reform advocates rallied in San Francisco, hoping to convince congress to help them stay.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein did not attend Thursday’s rally. She was in Washington, D.C. but a spokesman has said that this case while certainly heart-wrenching, it does not meet the high standard required for congressional intervention.

Without it, Mejia-Reyes and Perez will have to leave Monday, taking Dulsay with them. Gilbert, now in college, can remain until his amnesty hearing in July and Helen, his sister, may stay with him.

“It would be very sad for me if my parents get deported,” Helen said. “I need them to be here with me.”

The couple say they are continuing to pray for a miracle.