An immigration judge has vacated the deportation order of Minerva Garcia, an undocumented mother who went into sanctuary in a North Carolina church last June:
“It means a lot to me to have my freedom back,” said a teary Cisneros through a wide smile, while greeting her many supporters. “I can go home and live a normal life.
“Sometimes, I used to feel like I was never going to get out of here.”
Roses awaited Cisneros, just outside the front steps of the church, as supporters stood applauding.
Despite checking in regularly and without incident with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for nearly a decade, she was told earlier this year to prepare for deportation on June 30. With a home and three children here—one of whom is visually impaired due to complications from cancer—Garcia and her advocates in the community knew she had to fight back. Now following this judge’s move, she can finally return to her home and life.
Like so many other immigrants, Garcia has no criminal record yet was targeted for deportation despite checking in regularly with ICE. Immigrant rights advocates have termed this “silent raids.” For an administration trying to pad up deportation numbers, immigrants following the rules—like Garcia—are cruelly the easiest to arrest rather than the so-called “bad hombres” Donald Trump said he would target.
So since June, Garcia had been in sanctuary with two of her younger children, while her older child, a Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipient, was with loved ones. Now, they can be reunited. It’s unclear if she is still vulnerable to arrest by ICE, with her attorney only saying that “the two are now working on [Garcia’s] citizenship papers.”
Another recent sanctuary case is that of Jeanette Vizguerra, who spent nearly 90 days in a Colorado church. She won a two-year stay of deportation, with her first act after the decision being to visit another undocumented mother in sanctuary.
A selfless Garcia did the same:
The first thing Cisneros García did with her freedom was visit her friend Juana Ortega, a Guatemalan grandmother in Sanctuary at Saint Barnabas Episcopal Church in Greensboro.
When Cisneros García first went into sanctuary, Ortega told her to stay strong and trust she would be free.
“Thanks for those words you said to me that day,” Cisneros said to Ortega as they embraced. “Now I say the same to you,” she added.
“We are so grateful to God and to everyone who helped Minerva,” said Congregational United Church of Christ Rev. Julie Peeples, pastor of the church that took Garcia in. “I am proud of our church and friends, proud of the people in Winston-Salem and Greensboro who first became involved with Minerva and her family. We remain in awe of Minerva and her courage. We send them home with our love.”