Immigrant mom taking refuge in Philly church
PHILADELPHIA — Nine-year-old Mariana Mendoza had to give up her pink bedroom and bike when her family moved from a two-story rowhouse into a cramped church annex last month.
But that’s OK with her — as long as her mom is safe.
“Because if she didn’t move, maybe they could deport her,” Mariana said.
Her mother, Honduran immigrant Angela Navarro, has lived in fear of being sent back to her native country for 10 years. Tired of running scared, Navarro sought sanctuary at a Philadelphia house of worship while she and her supporters work to gain legal status for her.
“The hardest part has been leaving my life behind — leaving my house, my job, the inability to do normal family things, like going out for a walk or going shopping,” Navarro, 28, said through an interpreter.
Navarro is one of about a dozen U.S. immigrants who have recently taken shelter in churches, where authorities generally won’t pursue enforcement actions. The cases are unfolding as President Barack Obama seeks to curb deportations starting next year.
Immigration officials issued Navarro’s deportation order when she was 17. She had been picked up in 2003 while illegally trying to enter the United States to join her parents, who had received permission to live in the U.S. after Hurricane Mitch devastated Honduras.
Navarro defied the order and began living in the shadows to stay with her family and then-newborn son. Yet the stress eventually became too much, and on Nov. 18 she moved with her two children and husband, all U.S. citizens, into a renovated multipurpose room at West Kensington Ministry.
The church belongs to the nationwide Sanctuary 2014 coalition of about two dozen congregations willing to protect immigrants in danger of being deported.
Since last summer, three immigrants in sanctuary have won government reprieves and two have left their churches because they felt safe, coalition spokesman Sidney Traynham said. Four besides Navarro remain in refuge in U.S. churches.
