208 Days And Counting …

It has been 208 days since Nelson Pinos sought refuge at sanctuary at the corner of College and Elm streets, and it could be many more days as he awaits a decision from an immigration appeals board in Bloomington, Minn.

That is the latest in the deportation case of the Ecuadorian husband and father of three, who prior to seeking refuge at First & Summerfield United Methodist Church seven months ago to avoid a federal order to leave the country lived in the Annex section of the city.

Advocates held a rally for Pinos on the steps of the church Tuesday to remind people that the ongoing crackdown on illegal immigration is having an impact beyond the U.S. and Mexico border.

“Being in here, there is no day of life,” Pinos said when asked what a typical day is like living in a church, separated from his family, and knowing that leaving the church without an order that would stay the deportation order hanging over his head could put him in the hands of Immigration and Custom Enforcement officers.

His attorney Tina Colón Williams of Esperanza Center for Law and Advocacy, a Norwalk-based organization that has an office in New Haven, said that the power to stay the order of deportation technically rests with the Bloomington Immigration Court but it won’t hear a motion filed on Pinos’ behalf to reopen his case. If the court had accepted the motion, it would have granted him an automatic stay of deportation while the court looks at his case. But the court has thus far refused to accept the motion on the grounds that it lacks jurisdiction — a conclusion drawn by court staff, not a judge, Williams said.

Esperanza attorneys have filed a motion directly with Bloomington’s Board of Immigration Appeals, which Williams said has authority over the Bloomington Immigration Court. She said that board could direct the court to grant a stay to hear the case, reopen the case directly, or send the case to the court and demand that it receive the motion that the attorneys have filed for Pinos.

“We all know our immigration system is broken,” Williams said. ​“But even in this broken context, there are some spaces where there’s a little bit of room for mercy, a little bit of room for common sense and compassion.”

Williams and Pinos said they’re asking the board to have a bit of all three as they consider the case of the 48-year-old immigrant who entered the country illegally more than 25 years ago and has attempted to fix his undocumented status for several years to no avail. (Read here and here previous coverage of Pinos’ time in sanctuary.)

Vanesa Suarez of Unidad Latina en Acción, which organized the rally along with the attorneys of Esperanza, reminded the crowd that living in sanctuary is its own form of family separation.

The separation of children from their families became a recent flashpoint in the ongoing national battle over what to do about the broken immigration system. The Trump administration recently signed an executive order that allows for the incarceration of parents with their children as they await deportation. Suarez said that both forms of family separation will have psychological consequences for the families and children.

“This is not freedom by any means,” Suarez said of Pinos’ living in sanctuary without his family.

Pinos said in the seven months that he’s lived in the church it’s been seven months that he’s not been able to contribute to the life of his family. He said that has meant not taking his children to school, or the park, or helping them with their needs.

“All I’m asking is to be able to give my lawyers an opportunity to reopen my case,” he said. ​“I’m not asking for anything else but the opportunity to submit the papers so [the court] can review them.”