Connecticut woman to be deported Thursday despite advocates’ efforts Connecticut mother of 4 to leave U.S. for Guatemala today

Javier “Javi” Hsu, 6, center, of Hamden attends a rally on the New Haven Green against the deportation of Nury Chavarria Wednesday. Chavarria, third from right, is pictured with her attorney, Glenn Formica, fourth from right, and two of her four children — Elvin Martinez, 21, right, and Hayley Chavarria, 9, second from right. less Javier “Javi” Hsu, 6, center, of Hamden attends a rally on the New Haven Green against the deportation of Nury Chavarria Wednesday. Chavarria, third from right, is pictured with her attorney, ... more Photo: Catherine Avalone / Hearst Connecticut Media Photo: Catherine Avalone / Hearst Connecticut Media Image 1 of / 6 Caption Close Connecticut woman to be deported Thursday despite advocates’ efforts 1 / 6 Back to Gallery

NEW HAVEN >> Nury Chavarria, mother of four American citizen children, was denied a stay of deportation Wednesday and is scheduled to get on plane to Guatemala Thursday.

The news was issued by U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal’s office just before 7:30 p.m., after multiple interviews were arranged with Chavarria, followed by a press conference and a protest on the New Haven Green.

Her lawyer, Glenn Formica, said Chavarria, 43, was driving back to Norwalk with two of her children when he was forwarded the senator’s email. He said he was able to get a message to her shortly after that, but by 10 p.m. he had still not heard from Immigration and Customs Enforcement on its decision.

After 24 years in the United States, having arrived here at the age of 19, Charvarria will leave behind Elvin Martinez, 21; Lindsay Chavarria, 18; Kevin Uquillas, 15; and 9-year-old Hayley Chavarria. Nury Chavarria was the sole support for her children, working for 15 years as a housekeeper with the same company.

Martinez said he and his sister, Lindsay, who just entered Norwalk Community College, will try to keep the family together, although at the moment, Martinez, who has physical limitations from cerebral palsy, and Lindsay, who works part-time at a fast-food restaurant, are not clear on how they will do that.

Formica said he had lingered with Chavarria, Martinez and Hayley after a rally on the Green, attended by many of the CT Shoreline Indivisible Group that has been supporting her, hoping he would have gotten the word before the family left.

“I couldn’t say goodbye to her,” Formica said of his client.

Formica told the more than 60 supporters of Chavarria from Unidad Latina En Accion, Action Together Danbury CT and the Indivisable Group, that what needs to be changed is the ten-year rule under which deported immigrants cannot try to come back to the U.S. for a decade — at which point Chavarria’s youngest child will be 19 years old.

“Nury’s dilemma is whether to abandon her children or take them back to poverty. Our dilemma is whether we ask Nury to leave her children to be our responsibility or for us to accept that there are circumstances which mitigate the deportation order. Her circumstances mitigate a deportation order,” Formica said.

He said Chavarria’s problem is shared by many immigrants.

Formica said you can’t blame ICE as they are just enforcing the law. “We have to change the law,” he said.

He said Chavarria, of Norwalk, is not “looking for a handout. She is not even looking for a Green Card. She is looking for an opportunity to stay in the United States. That’s it. Finish the job that was started and at that point she will go home. But she has to get her kids through high school. She has to make sure that her eldest son has all the support and services that he needs, so that the rest of us don’t have to do that,” Formica said.

Chavarria came to the United States in 1993, Formica said, seeking asylum from Guatemala, which like much of Latin America was in economic turmoil because of “U.S. economic policy.”

Her request for asylum, which she made in Massachusetts, was rejected, while her brother and father were granted asylum in New York.

Earlier in the decade she had another attorney, whose license has been suspended. Based on incorrect information, it previously was reported that she had been disbarred. Formica was not blaming his client’s current situation on that attorney.

Martinez, in an interview in Formica’s office earlier Wednesday, said he was still processing what could happen. He said his emotions swing from anger to saddness. For the past few years he said things were looking good.

He especially promised to keep Hayley with him and Lindsay “so her education does not get compromised by something she has no control over,” if she was to go to Guatemala.

Hayley said, “I really don’t want this to happen.”

Asked what she would say to the president, the rising fourth-grader said: “Donald Trump why are you doing this? My mom is not a criminal. Not all the immigrant families are criminals. Breaking up families is not a good thing to do.”

At the press conference earlier Wednesday, New Haven Mayor Toni Harp said she was ashamed that her country would deport a woman who has no criminal record and has been successfully working and raising her children here for more than half her life.

She called Chavarria’s deportation “cruel and inhumane treatment of a Connecticut resident for technical, and certainly not criminal, nor non-compliant issues, with an inconsistent, arbitrary federal immigration policy.”

Chavarria had been granted multiple stays for humanitarian reasons since 2011 under the Obama administration and reported annually to ICE, as required. Under the previous administration, the priority was to deport undocumented immigrants with criminal records.

President Donad Trump’s policies don’t make a distinction on who is deported. When Chavarria reported to ICE on June 21, she was told to buy a one-way ticket to Guatemala for a July 20 departure.

The mayor stated that Chavarria is being deported “to satisfy what amounts to discrimination, prejudice and baseless fear in the hearts and minds of some Americans.”

Harp said the turmoil this has set off for Chavarria’s family can’t be considered “commensurate with whatever perceived civil transgression there has been against the federal government, if any at all.” She said no one has been harmed “at least until now.”

The mayor said New Haven, which is an immigrant-friendly city, “welcomes residents no matter where they used to live. In Connecticut, we value acceptance, tolerance and patience and we certainly don’t send people more than 1,000 miles from their home and family here without a legitimate reason.”

She said she stands with the estimated 60 supporters who came to show their support for the Guatemalan native.

Harp pledged to continue working toward “a culture, a society and a government that will treat people with respect and take better care of them.”

Also representing New Haven was Alder David Reyes, D-5, Alder Darryl Brackeen, D-26, and Harp’s Chief of Staff Tomas Reyes.

Blumenthal said deporting Chavarria was a “cold and callous decision by the Trump administration to remove all reason and rationality from its immigration enforcement priorities. I spoke directly to ICE leadership today presenting clear and compelling facts in this case and seeking a reasonable request for reconsideration, yet the Trump administration turned a blind eye. Unfortunately, this tragedy is merely the tip of the iceberg,” he said.

U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy also met with ICE on Wednesday.