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 "I don’t want to leave here," Rosa Imelda Robles Loreto told the
gathering through an interpreter. "My life is here. My children are
here, and we’re going to keep on until we achieve victory,"
Loreto is due to be deported on Friday, but she will remain
protected by Southside Presbyterian Church until Immigration and
Customs Enforcement (ICE) offers her a reprieve, said Pastor Alison
Harrington.
"We are standing between Rosa and an unjust system," Harrington
said. "They will remain here until the sanctity of their family is
recognized."
Loreto was identified by ICE officials after a traffic stop,
detained by Border Patrol agents and later released, said her
attorney, Margo Cowan.
She appealed against the deportation order, arguing that she has
deep ties to the United States, including two children, a husband, a
job and a home she owns. She asked the church for help after ICE
rejected her appeal.
The church said it offered her sanctuary because she is a good
example of a category of undocumented immigrant made a low priority
in 2011 by then-ICE Director John Morton.
In a memo, Morton offered guidance in the use of "prosecutorial
discretion" and listed attributes including long-standing community
ties, being a caretaker of minors, and lack of criminal history,
that make a case a low priority.
ICE has said it is conducting a comprehensive review of Loreto's
case "to determine appropriate next steps."
Southside averted another immigrant's deportation in June. Daniel
Neyoy Ruiz, 36, spent 26 days in sanctuary before ICE granted him a
one-year reprieve, after which Ruiz will have to report back to the
agency, Harrington said.
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ICE could administratively close Loreto's case or issue a stay,
giving her time to make a case for permanent residency, or it could
move forward with the deportation order, Cowan said.
Now that Loreto is in the church, it becomes a stalemate, because
ICE policy forbids arrests in sensitive areas, unless there is a
threat to public safety or national security.
"Then it becomes a political campaign," Cowan said. "We've made it
clear we don't want to go there."
(Reporting by Brad Poole; Editing by Daniel Wallis, Sandra Maler,
Sharon Bernstein and Clarence Fernandez)
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