Edith Espinal’s last hope to keep calling Columbus home was to pack up her things and move into a church.

So instead of going to a final check-in Tuesday with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, where she probably would have been detained and deported to Mexico, Espinal took refuge at Columbus Mennonite Church on the North Side.

“I took sanctuary because of a deportation. But I don’t want to leave behind my children. I don’t want to leave this country,” Espinal told more than 120 people who gathered at the church Tuesday morning. “I want to remain here with my family.”

Espinal will live at the church indefinitely if necessary, she said, sleeping in a converted children’s classroom. Organizers say her refuge is the first public sanctuary in Ohio.

“Today, Columbus, Ohio, truly becomes a sanctuary city," said Ruben Castilla Herrera, director of the Central Ohio Worker Center. "We need policy and legislation, but ultimately, sanctuary comes from the people.”

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In addition to providing Espinal with sanctuary, Columbus Mennonite Church and other local faith groups are organizing a petition asking Republican U.S. Sen. Rob Portman to get ICE to grant a stay on her deportation order.

Emily Benavides, Portman's spokeswoman, said their office has not been contacted by Espinal or her attorney "but we would certainly reach out to to the relevant federal agencies to ensure all relevant facts of the case are heard if they choose to do so."

In a high-profile case earlier this year, a Cincinnati-area mother was deported to Mexico despite efforts by Portman and Democratic U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown to work out a solution with immigration authorities. Gov. John Kasich also expressed support for Maribel Trujillo-Diaz, saying “we have enough broken families in the country.”

“As Ohioans, we think of ourselves as the heart of it all. Where is this heart?” said the Rev. Dan Clark, Ohio director of Faith in Public Life.

Earlier this year, a U.S. Department of Homeland Security spokesman said there had been no demonstrable increase in ICE action in the region, other than routine targeted enforcement. ICE officials did not respond to requests for comment.

Espinal, 39, has lived in Columbus for more than a decade, has no criminal record and is the mother of three children, two of whom are U.S. citizens.

Joseph Mas, a Columbus lawyer and member of the Mennonite church, said the congregation knew the legal risk it was taking when it voted unanimously to offer sanctuary to Espinal.

The church is hoping that ICE will honor an Obama-era memorandum guiding officials not to arrest individuals at "sensitive places" such as schools or churches.

“Anyone offering support could be accused of breaking the law,” Mas said, referring to federal statutes about aiding undocumented people. “You will see more churches accepting this extraordinary responsibility. I am predicting that we will see this grow.”

The Espinal family and the congregation hoped to add a layer of protection by making the sanctuary public, Mas said.

Immigration authorities “still could show up at any time. We’re aware of that,” said Tim Stried, congregational chair at Columbus Mennonite Church. “We are aware that it is one piece of the puzzle in a nationwide situation. We’re prepared to shelter her as long as necessary.”

Providing public sanctuary is a symbolic act that puts pressure on lawmakers and ICE officials, but it provides no legal protection from deportation, said Kenneth Robinson, a Columbus immigration lawyer.

As more religious institutions offer refuge to undocumented immigrants, it is possible the federal government will begin to charge the institutions under criminal harboring statutes, Robinson said.

There's a major difference between a church that publicly offers sanctuary and those that do so secretly, said David Leopold, a former president and general counsel of the American Immigration Lawyers Association.

“As long as the church is open and obvious, I’m not sure it opens any legal question,” Leopold said. “ICE’s decision not to go into a church is theirs. I think it would be quite a spectacle to see ICE raid a church, but nothing surprises me anymore.”

Many other Ohio churches are preparing their buildings to host undocumented people, whether the churches make their decision public or not, said Joan Van Becelaere, community minister and executive director of Unitarian Universalist Justice Ohio.

“All of us have been strangers in a strange land at some point,” she said. "We need to remember we're all in this together — whether you’re undocumented or lucky enough to be born in this country.”

@Marion Renault

mrenault@dispatch.com