Nelly Cumbicos, the mother of a teenage U.S. citizen from Meriden, Connecticut, was scheduled to be deported to her native Ecuador last week. Instead, she became the fourth person to seek sanctuary at a church in New Haven.
Officials at Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, said that Cumbicos would have remained in the Alternatives to Detention program, in which she would have been outfitted with an ankle monitor to ensure she stayed at home.
But that wasn’t enough reassurance for Cumbicos or Kica Matos, an immigrant rights advocate who is helping with the case. “They would have tracked her whereabouts – and they have done this in the past – they would have probably knocked on her door and said, ‘You gotta go.’”
So Matos arranged for Cumbicos to stay in a church until ICE could clarify her status.
“The lawyer, after much consultation with ICE, got assurances from ICE in writing that they decided that she could remain in the United States and that they would not enforce a deportation while her case was pending,” Matos said.
Immigration officials did not issue a formal stay, but they sent a letter to Cumbicos’s lawyer on Monday confirming that they will enforce her deportation.
After six days in the church, Cumbicos can now return home with her U.S. citizen husband and son – at least while a motion to reopen her immigration case is still pending.
If Cumbicos leaves the country before her case makes it to appeal, she will lose her chance to defend herself in court.
