<\/p>\n
GLENWOOD SPRINGS \u2013 Sandra Lopez, a 42-year-old woman who has taken sanctuary against deportation in a Carbondale parsonage, came to the U.S. nearly 20 years ago, running away from the violence, government corruption and poverty of Chihuahua, Mexico.<\/p>\n
The immigration system as it is today is especially hard on Mexicans and Central Americans. Mexicans trying to enter the U.S. legally can be wait-listed for as long as 20 years. Lopez said her family was poor in Mexico, and immigrating to the U.S. is an \u201cextraordinarily difficult and expensive process.\u201d<\/p>\n
She said in an interview that desperation led her to take a dangerous path into the U.S. She paid a coyote to take her across the border, only to find the smuggler drunk. She was left in the desert for a day and a half without water, in the cold night with scorpions and spiders, before being picked up again.<\/p>\n
All of this to have a life in the U.S.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy husband and I had a lot of dreams. We were looking for a better opportunity and to live in a safer place,\u201d Lopez said via a translator.<\/p>\n
After making it into the U.S., Lopez came to the Roaring Fork Valley. \u201cI\u2019ve done the work that so many of the immigrants do in this country: cleaning homes, cleaning hotels.\u201d Lopez, who was living in Silt, has also become a local activist for immigrants\u2019 rights.<\/p>\n
In 2010, she was arrested on misdemeanor criminal mischief and domestic violence, but the charges were quickly dropped. She says the arrest was a mistake, after one of her children mistakenly dialed 911. Nevertheless, the arresting officer immediately reported her to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement after she couldn\u2019t provide a Colorado ID, she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWithin a few hours of being in jail that night, before dawn had even broken, the officer came to tell me that ICE was calling to interview me over the phone,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Lopez said she paid $10,000 to hire a Denver immigration attorney. But when he lost her case, he forgot to inform his client.<\/p>\n
\u201cSuddenly, I got a call saying I had two days to go back to Mexico,\u201d said Lopez. \u201cHow is it even possible that an attorney that I paid forgot to tell me this? That was a huge blow getting that news.\u201d<\/p>\n
No other attorney would take the case, because two days just wasn\u2019t enough time. So she had to stick with him, and she paid him another $3,000 to appeal the decision, which he also lost.<\/p>\n
Lopez then hired Glenwood Springs immigration attorney Jennifer Smith, who was able to get Lopez a stay of removal.<\/p>\n
This was good news, giving Lopez the opportunity to stay with her family, allowing her to work legally and get a driver\u2019s license \u2013 even a Social Security number.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn some sense, I was more secure than I had been before,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
A stay of removal, however, is only a temporary fix.<\/p>\n
As part of that program, Lopez had to report to ICE each year to give an update on where she was, what she was doing and ensure she kept a clean record.<\/p>\n
During each trip to the ICE office, she was filled with fear.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was very afraid because I didn\u2019t know what was going to happen, and there was no guarantee that they were going to let me walk out of that building and go back to my family,\u201d she said. \u201cBut I wanted to go and show my face, to show that I\u2019m a worker, I\u2019m a mother, and to show that I\u2019m doing everything they\u2019re asking, and that I\u2019m a loyal and good person.\u201d<\/p>\n
But Lopez said that if she had gone to her annual ICE check-in on Oct. 19, she would have been deported. The day before, her attorney called to inform her that her stay of removal had been revoked.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a huge surprise. This time I found they had denied me. I knew if I went I would be arrested, and I would be put back into the system. And so it was very difficult, but I had to make the decision to go into sanctuary.\u201d<\/p>\n
Instead of going to her ICE check-in, she got her 13-year-old son ready for school, while keeping quiet about the news, and then packed a suitcase with things for her and her 2-year-old daughter. She called into work to let them know she wouldn\u2019t be in, holding her tongue about why.<\/p>\n
In March of this year, Carbondale\u2019s Two Rivers Unitarian Universalist congregation decided to offer sanctuary to immigrants who are living in the country illegally, in response to developments in national policy. And though Lopez had attended and spoke at a prayer vigil where the church announced its decision, she hadn\u2019t guessed she would be the one to use it.<\/p>\n
\u201cI left everything behind. My house, my job, my role as a mother,\u201d said Lopez.<\/p>\n
Lopez says that she and her attorney still don\u2019t know why the government changed its course in her case.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey simply denied (the stay of removal). It\u2019s very difficult under the Trump administration for us to stay here,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the end of the day, we take sanctuary to be with those who are most important in our lives, which are our children,\u201d said Lopez.<\/p>\n
The congregation is doing what it can to fix up the basement, installing some carpet and donating a few pieces of furniture and a crib for Lopez\u2019s daughter. But the space is still claustrophobic: a small living space with a mattress on the floor for when her 13-year-old son can visit, a bathroom, a tight bedroom down a hallway squeezed by a washer and drier.<\/p>\n
Though she\u2019s grateful to the Two Rivers congregation for its support, she said that staying in sanctuary, in some ways, is like being imprisoned. She can\u2019t work. She\u2019s afraid to go outside or even answer the door.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis has marked my life forever, ever since 2010,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd all my work has been to pay the government and to pay attorneys. I have spent around $28,000 throughout this process. And all my work is going to other people. I haven\u2019t been able to provide a lot of things for my children.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn spite of all that, I\u2019m still here in deportation. It\u2019s like they don\u2019t see me as a mother who just needs to be here with her children,\u201d she said. \u201cAt the end of the day, they didn\u2019t accept my attempts to become a resident here.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s important that we call this what it is. I\u2019m an undocumented mother, and that does not make us criminals. I\u2019m just a mother, and I\u2019m fighting for my family to be together. I had the option to flee and go into hiding, but instead I\u2019m here. I have dreams. My family has dreams.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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