Norwalk woman told to leave U.S. takes sanctuary in church

Activist Kica Matos addresses press conference outside church where Nury Chavarria has taken up sanctuary. Pastor Hector Otero is at left. Next to him is Hayley Chavarria, 9, Nury's daughter. Activist Kica Matos addresses press conference outside church where Nury Chavarria has taken up sanctuary. Pastor Hector Otero is at left. Next to him is Hayley Chavarria, 9, Nury's daughter. Photo: Mary O’Leary / Hearst Connecticut Media Photo: Mary O’Leary / Hearst Connecticut Media Image 1 of / 56 Caption Close Norwalk woman told to leave U.S. takes sanctuary in church 1 / 56 Back to Gallery

Nury Chavarria, of Norwalk, who was supposed to be deported Thursday to Guatemala, has taken sanctuary in a New Haven church.

Pastor Hector Otero, of Iglesia de Dios Pentecostal in Fair Haven, has opened his facility for Chavarria, who was to depart from Newark Airport on Thursday evening, leaving behind her four U.S. citizen children, who range in age from 9 to 21.

New Haven has a network of people who have been working for months helping immigrants prepare for possible deportation, including looking for churches that would be willing to serve as sanctuaries.

“We are here today because we are people of good conscience who want to do whatever we need to do to protect Nury Chavarria and her children,” activist Kica Matos said at a 5 p.m. press conference in front of the Pentecostal church.

Matos is the director of immigrant rights and racial justice at the Center for Community Change and one of the organizers that helped arrange the last-minute sanctuary effort starting late Wednesday night.

Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, who became aware of the case Thursday, went to the church later Thursday evening.

He said ICE’s decision to deport Chavarria is an example of lies told by President Donald Trump’s administration that its immigration policies are directed at “the bad guys.”

Malloy said a working mother, dealing with her share of hardship, raising her children here, does not meet that definition. “It doesn’t make sense,” he said.

“I am here to say this individual case is a wrong, but I am also very concerned that the greater wrong is when the American people are lied to about what their government is doing. If everything I have learned so far about this particular case bears up, then we are being lied to about this case and apparently other cases, as well,” Malloy said.

He said her circumstances haven’t changed, but the government’s policies on immigration have changed.

“I’d like to see a better result for her. I am also very concerned as to what this means on a larger basis,” the governor said. He said these actions by the government keep immigrants from reporting crimes, which makes them vulnerable to being victims themselves.

Malloy said he is accepting the decision by a church to offer “it’s own form of sanctuary,” to Chavarria, but he said applying the term sanctuary to a city is not accurate.

“There is no definition of what a sanctuary city is. The attorney general (Jeff Sessions) makes things up. We know that from other things he has said in the relatively short period of time that he has been attorney general,” Malloy said.

Ultimately, he said the state can’t do much to change these policies except to make its voice known. He said he hopes a broader audience of Americans will understand “every time we accept being lied to, or misled by our government, we are endangering our personal freedom and that is part of what is at stake here.”

Malloy came to the podium with Hayley Chavarria, 9, Nury Chavarria’s youngest child.

Hayley said her mother is “someone I love more than anyone in the world. She is not a criminal and has a positive attitude about everything. I want her to stay. I love her so much. My message to President Trump is ‘don’t separate my family.’ ”

The governor spoke at what was the second press conference of the day at the church.

Earlier, Otero, the Rev. Abraham Hernandez, Rabbi Herbert Brockman and others, backed by more than a dozen supporters, addressed the issue.

Matos said all over the state, thousands of people have supported Chavarria. “All are in favor of her remaining in the United States,” she said.

Otero said Scripture says people must identify themselves with “widows and orphans and the stranger.”

“We hope that this case will be resolved as expeditiously as possible in a way that she may be able to fill the needs and the challenges that this life offers her,” Otero said.

He appealed to the government agents handling the case to see the merits of Chavarria’s position.

Hernandez said they have upgraded the facilities at the church to make it more accommodating for someone to live there.

He said the children’s aunt is helping them in Norwalk and the churches will be raising funds to help the family cover the basic necessities.

A large contingent of women at the church were inside with Chavarria and are taking turns bringing her food and making her at home.

How long this goes on is up to ICE, Matos said, who she hoped will reconsider deportation.

Brockman recalled the story of a small village in France that stood up to the Nazis who wanted to deport all the Jews there to death camps. The day before the deportation was to begin, the Protestant minister said this could not happen in the community.

Brockman said at the end of the war, 6,000 children had been saved by the efforts of that town.

Brockman praised Otero for what he is doing for Chavarria. “It resounds in my heart historically and in my conscience today,” he said. “We as a Jewish community will do whatever we can to support his efforts, to support those who are vulnerable in our community.”

Brockman said about a month ago, the church leaders met with ICE officials and U.S. Attorney Deirdre Daly and they reaffirmed churches, schools, hospitals and rallies remain sensitive spaces where ICE will not conduct a raid.

That protocol was originally put out in 2011 under the Obama administration.

Chavarria, who is the sole supporter of her children, was first given a stay in 2010, something that has been renewed annually since then.

When she went for her annual check-in with the ICE office June 21, she was told to buy a one-way ticket to Guatemala for July 20.

Chavarria met with the leaders of Otero’s church around noon Thursday and told them them that she wanted to seek sanctuary.

Attorney Glenn Formica will continue to represent Chavarria before ICE for any applications on relief that may become available, but Chavarria is retaining new counsel relating to issues regarding sanctuary.

Otero was the first pastor in the area to pledge his church would provide short-term sanctuary to immigrants seeking to avoid deportation.

Chavarria, a resident of Norwalk, has been living in Connecticut for 24 years, arriving here at age 19 and seeking asylum from Guatemala. After several years, asylum was denied to Chavarria, who had applied in Massachusetts. Her brother and father were successful in their cases, which were heard in New York.

In April, a group of 30 churches from the New Haven area got advice on how they could help immigrants, as well as the legal ramifications of harboring an undocumented person.

They were told that it is illegal to offer sanctuary with the intention of blocking immigration officials from finding an individual.

A lawyer from the New Haven Legal Assistance Association told the group that they can protect themselves from any federal criminal liability by making their decision public and naming the individual. Under such a scenario, they are not hiding the person.

Under the Obama administration, more than 2.5 million immigrants were deported during his time in office, but in the later years, the grounds for deportation were narrowed, with a concentration on persons with criminal convictions.

The definition of those targeted by the Department of Homeland Security under President Trump has been expanded to basically cover all 11 million undocumented immigrants in the country.

Formica said Chavarria’s circumstances have not changed since she was granted stays for multiple years in a row by ICE. In his mind, deporting her means the use of discretion in these cases is over under Trump.

The Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse said ICE has closed fewer than 100 cases each month in the first six months of the current administration. In President Barack Obama’s second term, an average of 2,400 were closed, according to TRAC.

The other churches in the area that have agreed to be sanctuaries are First and Summerfield United Methodist Church in New Haven and Congregation Mishkan Israel in Hamden, which is led by Brockman.

Brockman said Mishkan Israel is still running the details past its legal advisers and will have to create a space in which someone could reside.

He said he has had some questions from the congregation as to what this will mean for them. Brockman said he is answering them frankly, but at the same time he said the synagogue should “respond to our human obligations. We as a religious organization have a responsibility to respond.”

More than 800 churches and some synagogues across the country have declared themselves sanctuaries, according to the Voice of America.

The Migration Policy Institute reported that more noncriminal immigrants are being arrested under Trump. A quarter of those arrested, 10,845, did not have criminal convictions. This compares to 14 percent, or 4,242 individuals, during the same time in 2016.