Instead the 43-year-old housekeeper took sanctuary at Iglesia De Dios Pentecostal in New Haven, Connecticut.
A single mother of four has taken refuge in a Connecticut church after federal authorities ordered her deported to her native Guatemala as part of President Donald Trump's crackdown on unauthorized immigrants in the United States.
Nury Chavarria, who moved to the United States in 1993 to seek asylum from political turmoil and violence at home, was supposed to board a plane to Guatemala on Thursday.
Instead the 43-year-old housekeeper took sanctuary at Iglesia De Dios Pentecostal in New Haven, Connecticut. She is a single mother of four children aged 9 to 21. All of her children were born in the United States, automatically giving them citizenship. Her eldest has cerebral palsy.
Her original asylum request was denied, and she has technically been living illegally in the United States since 1999. Chavarria has been granted stays of removal on humanitarian grounds as she has raised her children.
Connecticut Governor Dannel Malloy has expressed his support for Chavarria and met with her inside the church on Thursday evening. He told reporters that the state is "not able to do much" for her given her fugitive status.
On Friday, he wrote in a tweet, "#NuryChavarria is a mother and has no criminal record. She is welcome in our state."
Federal immigration agents have generally respected the tradition of not crossing the threshold of houses of worship to make arrests.
When Trump was elected in November, he vowed to deport 2 million to 3 million illegal immigrants. In the first few months of his presidency, arrests have risen, but actual deportations have fallen by 12 percent compared to the same period under President Barack Obama.
"We have opened the doors of our congregation to serve Ms. Chavarria as a sanctuary church," Pastor Héctor Otero of Iglesisa De Dios Pentecostal told the media through a translator on Thursday.
In April, Pastor Otero told the New Haven Register that his congregants were committed to providing short-term sanctuary to immigrants facing deportation, but that they may not have capacity to support sanctuary seekers for an extended period of time.
Chavarria has long been on the radar of immigration officials. She was allowed to voluntarily depart when her case was reviewed in 1998, according to Khaalid Walls, spokesperson for the U.S. Immigration Customs Enforcement.
She was subject to final order of removal in 1999. After years of stays, she was told to buy a plane ticket to Guatemala at her last annual check-in with the ICE in June.
(This article has not been edited by DNA's editorial team and is auto-generated from an agency feed.)
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