The family of a disabled Toronto-area boy was granted a four-week reprieve of their deportation order on Friday after making a tearful plea to be allowed to remain in Canada.

But the deferral hasn't changed the legal status of the Carnales family, who asked for a stay of their deportation order.

"It doesn't change anything, they're still being deported," Matthew Geigen-Miller, of Defence for Children International-Canada, told CTV.ca. "It's more time to pack, is what it is."

The child rights group is fighting on behalf of four-year-old Aaron Carnales, who has Down syndrome. He was born in Canada and is a Canadian citizen, but his parents and 11-year-old brother are not, and therefore have been ordered deported to Uruguay.

"I think it's wrong that we have to go away because my brother and I, we have to start our lives over," Aaron's brother Santiago said through tears at a press conference in Toronto earlier Friday.

Aaron's father also choked up when speaking to the media. He said his son won't get the special care he needs in Uruguay.

"He has shown such a huge progress on his development," Daniel Carnales said. "Aaron is a Canadian citizen who has a disability and requires a lot of help."

Carnales said although his son Santiago is not a Canadian citizen, "his life is here, his education has been in English since day one."

The child rights group asked Canada's federal immigration minister to stay the Brampton family's deportation order.

"We're not saying that every conceivable time that someone comes to Canada and has a child here, that that gives everyone a free ticket to stay," Geigen-Miller said at the press conference.

"But in this case, we've got a young family, a child that's intellectually disabled who has a host of wonderful services that help him to develop and grow."

The family says their refugee claim was turned down based on a technical misunderstanding. They say the government was missing an enormous amount of relevant information when it denied the family's original application for an exemption, and therefore the case was not decided on its true merits.

Geigen-Miller said the government issued a four-week deferral about a month ago after the family held a similar press conference. He said the ordeal has been trying on the Carnales family.

"It's really wearing them down," Geigen-Miller said. "For the second time now, the 11-year-old, Santiago, has said goodbye to his classmates.

"I wish I could feel optimistic at this point, but it's tough."

The family is asking Immigration Minister Diane Finley to step in and stay the deportation order to allow their case to be reconsidered on humanitarian and compassionate grounds.

More than 700 people have signed an online petition in support of the Carnales'.

The family was to be deported next Thursday, but that will now take place on April 8 unless the case is reopened.

With a report from CTV Toronto's Austin Delaney