Facing imminent deportation despite having no criminal record and following ICE’s rules to check in, Leonor Garcia went into sanctuary in a Cleveland Heights, Ohio, church one week ago. It wasn’t an easy choice for Garcia to make: after her husband was deported in 2011, she became a single mom to four U.S. citizen kids. But when she was slapped with an ankle bracelet during her routine August check-in, Forest Hills Presbyterian Church announced Garcia would be given sanctuary in an act of holy resistance.
But while she is safe inside the church, her attorney alleges ICE agents went to her home to harass two of her children:
Agents of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) "pounded on the door" of the Akron home of Leonor Garcia Friday morning, even though the office was told she has taken sanctuary in the the Forest Hill Presbyterian Church in Cleveland Heights, church officials said.
Garcia's 3-year-old son and 19-year-old daughter, Margaret, were home when agents knocked loudly on the door. Garcia, who is an undocumented immigrant, was scheduled to be deported to Mexico on Thursday. Instead, she took refuge in the church on Tuesday.
"ICE is at Leonor's house in Akron, banging on the door and terrorizing two innocent children who are in the house," a church official said. "There is no reason for this action since ICE knows full well that Leonor is in Sanctuary in Cleveland Heights. This is harassment."
An ICE spokesperson denied harassment from the federal stormtroopers, claiming that "ICE officers visited the residence after Ms. Garcia failed to appear to a required reporting date. ICE officers did not make contact with anyone at the home.” But ICE knows exactly where Garcia is, and not just because of the publicity around the case—Garcia wears an ICE-issued ankle bracelet with GPS. Cleveland.com:
Lentz said Garcia's daughter, who was born in the United States, refused to answer the door and eventually the agents left.
"This is harassment since ICE knows Leonor is here in the church," said Lentz. "We've been having conversations with them because they want us to return the ankle monitor Leonor wears. We have been discussing how to do that, since cutting it would be tampering with government property."
This could be dangerous with an agency as deceptive and dishonest as ICE. Immigration agents have resorted to using children as bait in order to arrest undocumented immigrant family members, according to recent reports. And while ICE policy dictates that churches are generally off-limits to agents, Garcia could be vulnerable to arrest if she steps outside—or lets ICE agents in—so they can retrieve the ankle bracelet.
“I want to stay here with my family,” Garcia said before she went into sanctuary last week. “I want to fight it because I love my family. I don’t [have anything] in Mexico, only here.”