Updates

NMD rallies support for immigrant in sanctuary

This article by Denise Holley appears in our spring newsletter.

Volunteers with No More Deaths hoisted signs that declared “We Stand with Rosa” as they launched a campaign in February to free a Tucson mother from the threat of deportation. Keep Tucson Together, a NMD affiliate, aims to bring more visibility to the struggle of Rosa Robles Loreto and put pressure on Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

Robles Loreto took sanctuary at Southside Presbyterian Church on August 7, 2014, to avoid a deportation order that would send her back to Mexico and separate her from her husband and two sons. A resident of Tucson since 1999, Robles Loreto was stopped for a minor traffic violation in 2011, which led to the order last summer.

So far, the local ICE office has refused to close Robles Loreto’s case. Her time living in a small room at the church has stretched into seven months.

Three immigrants who sought sanctuary in churches in 2014 came to Southside February 25 to encourage Robles Loreto and participate in a community conversation about their experience. Daniel Neyoy Ruiz lived at Southside with his family from May to June and Francisco Perez Cordova took sanctuary at St. Francis in the Hills Methodist Church in Tucson from September to December. Angela Navarro traveled from Philadelphia where she had lived in sanctuary. All three emerged with their deportation orders lifted or cases closed.

“When we started in August (with Rosa), I never dreamed we’d still be here at Christmas,” attorney Margo Cowan told the Southside congregation in December.

So far, the local ICE office has refused to close Robles Loreto’s case. Her time living in a small room at the church has stretched into seven months.

Attorney Margo Cowan speaks on behalf of local immigrants who have taken sanctuary to avoid deportation during a February 25 meeting at Southside Presbyterian Church. Below her is Rosa Robles Loreto, who has lived in sanctuary at Southside since August 2014. Photo by Denise Holley.
Attorney Margo Cowan speaks on behalf of local immigrants who have taken sanctuary to avoid deportation during a February 25 meeting at Southside Presbyterian Church. Below her is Rosa Robles Loreto, who has lived in sanctuary at Southside since August 2014. Photo by Denise Holley.

Supporters keep her company and she attends the Sunday services.

“It’s very hard for me,” Robles Loreto said about missing her boys’ activities and having the whole family together only on weekends. “But I am a person of faith,” she said, who leans on God when she feels sad.

“Rosa is a woman with much faith, optimism and strength,” said Ernesto Portillo, Jr., editor of La Estrella, who emceed the February 25 event.

“We’re going to do everything we can to help her,” Neyoy Ruiz pledged.

A week earlier, Keep Tucson Together held a press conference at the church and then accompanied Rosa’s sons, Gerardo Jr. and José Emiliano, to the downtown post office where they mailed their applications for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.

“We don’t like moms being deported,” said Sarah Launius, co-coordinator of Keep Tucson Together.

Her group trains volunteers to help people file paperwork to close their immigration cases. Currently, they are holding forums at Pueblo High School to explain the latest executive orders on expanded deferred action for certain immigrants, Launius said.

NMD volunteers voted March 2 to donate $5,000 to the campaign to blanket the Tucson area with more “We Stand with Rosa” signs.