Fleeing ICE, Immigrant Moves Into Church

A Norwalk woman took up sanctuary inside a Fair Haven church Thursday, after federal immigration authorities ordered her to fly back to Guatemala.

The woman, Nury Chavarria, 43, a single mother of four American citizens facing deportation for entering the country illegally, has taken up residence inside Iglesia de Dios Pentecostal, a church on East Pearl Street. She plans to stay until U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) reconsiders her case, said the pastor and advocates who are sheltering her.

Chavarria mainly wants to stay so as to not be separated from her children, including a 21-year-old with cerebral palsy and a 9‑year-old who told reporters on Thursday that her mom is not a criminal.

“My message to Trump is don’t separate my family,” the young girl, Hayley Chavarria, said, her head visible just above the lectern.

Shortly after noon, her mom met with a team of faith leaders, including Pastor Hector Luis Otero of Iglesia de Dios, Rev. Paul Fleck of Hamden Plains United Church and Rabbi Herbert Brockman of Congregation Mishkan Israel. Just hours before her plane was set to take off from Newark Airport, they weighed her options. Chavarria asked if she could stay at the church, and the ministers quickly assented.

“This is a day that we, as clergy throughout the state, had talked about for several months, a day which we hoped would never arrive. Unfortunately, we are here,” said Abraham Hernandez, executive director of the state chapter of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference. ​“We as a church and a faith community here recognize this is a time for us to rise.”

Houses of worship are uniquely protected because of an October 2011 memo from ICE’s then-Director John Morton. His guidelines advised officers not to conduct enforcement operations in ​“sensitive locations,” including churches, synagogues and mosques, as well as schools, hospitals and protests. The policy does allow exceptions when ​“exigent circumstances exist,” but faith leaders in the New Haven area said they received assurances that these policy was still in effect at a meeting with U.S Attorney Deirdre Daly last month.

“This community has decided to step up and courageously protect Nury Chavarria,” Kica Matos of Fair Haven, an organizer focused on immigration and race at the Center for Community Change, said at a press conference in front of the church. ​“Understand that Ms. Chavarria has not lived in Guatemala for 24 years ago. This is her community. We are here today because we are people of good conscience who want to do whatever we need to do to protect Ms. Chavarria and her children.”

At the 350-member congregation that’s largely Puerto Rican, a ​“prayer chain” has been going for several hours, meaning someone takes turns keeping a three-hour vigil during the daytime, praying to God or talking with Chavarria, said Otero, the church’s pastor. In the evening, as three extra-large pizza pies were delivered to the 146-year-old church, roughly 45 people gathered to show their support.

Otero had been preparing for immigration raids since President Trump’s first executive orders in the spring. When Otero previewed his plans for the sanctuary church in April, he originally told the Independent that the space couldn’t accommodate a long-term stay, he’s since added a little bed to the annex that adjoins the main church and said he’s working on a more functional bathroom. Still, at the press conference Thursday, he said he was hoping for her case to be ​“resolved as expeditiously as possible.”

Asked what would happen on Sunday, when the pews will fill up, Otero said he’s praying for guidance. He doesn’t know what his homily will be yet, but he said Thursday, ​“We preached today. We showed something, the true message: We showed the love of God and help for your neighbor.”

Advocates repeatedly pointed out that Chavarria, who works as a housekeeper, has committed no wrong aside from her illegal border crossing. A sensible immigration policy would focus on creating a path to citizenship and not deporting mothers whose tireless effort ​“embodies what a lot of immigrants pursue in this country, the American Dream,” said Jesus Morales-Sanchez, an organizer with Unidad Latina en Accion.

Gov. Dannel P. Malloy showed up at the church shortly after 7 p.m. on Thursday and spoke with Chavarria inside the sanctuary for 15 minutes. Afterward, he told reporters that the woman he’d met struck him as ​“earnest, loving [and] hard-working.”

“Her English is pretty darn good, too,” he added.

He argued that the federal government’s claim that authorities have deported immigrants only with criminal backgrounds that posed a threat to their communities is a patent lie. And a dangerous one, he added, because it means that everyone’s rights are threatened.

“I am not aware of things in her background that would put in a category as a bad guy,” Malloy said. ​“I don’t think she’s changed, I don’t think these circumstances have changed. I think our government has changed, I think its policies have changed, and I think they’re lying about those policies.”

Asked what his administration could do in the face of ICE’s deportation orders, Malloy said he didn’t want to advocate for more ​“sanctuary cities,” although he noted that the exact definition of that term varies widely. And he admitted he hadn’t yet had conversations with federal officials recently, ​“because, quite frankly, I haven’t had time,” given the state’s budget crisis. But he said his presence at the church was a start, and he called on the federal government to back off.

“We’re raising this issue about whether it makes sense for the American government to separate the primary caregiver from at least two out of these four children,” the governor said. ​“It doesn’t make sense, based on everything I know. Nobody’s been able to explain this. So if it’s not explainable, stop it. Stand by what you’re saying.”