Daily Hampshire Gazette profiles Lucio Perez, another undocumented dad in sanctuary in a Massachusetts church since this fall. Like Morales, Perez has no violent record and shouldn’t be a priority for deportation. Under President Obama, he was given numerous stays of deportation, so long as he kept checking in regularly with ICE and showing he was out of trouble. But this past summer, he was told to buy a one-way ticket and prepare for deportation:

Perez’s dress slacks conceal the bulky electronic monitoring bracelet that ICE put on his ankle, but its weight is a constant reminder that his movements are tracked. That’s why he doesn’t leave the walls of his new home, where he can do nothing but wait: for immigration officials to reopen his case, for community members to bring him food, for his family to make the drive from Springfield to visit him. To pass the time, Perez listens to music, attends church service, has visitors and, most importantly for him, reads the Bible. “If I close myself in there, without my family and not hearing their voices and laughter, loneliness follows,” Perez said in his native Spanish. Having left poverty and violence behind in Guatemala at 18, the 35-year-old Perez said he dreads being completely separated from his children and wife — the loved ones he moved to the United States to give a better life, he said.

“Jesus said to love your neighbors as you love yourselves, and whenever you care for the least of these—people who are marginalized, oppressed, poor—you’re caring for me,” said Rev. Vicki Kemper of First Congregational Church, where Perez has been living. “So we take those scriptural injunctions and tenets of our faith very seriously.” Following Trump’s inauguration, the church at first voted to become a “welcoming sanctuary,” since it had no physical space for a sanctuary. Then came Perez’s imminent deportation:

When Perez’s deportation date came in September, however, the urgency of the situation meant local advocates had to make quick decisions. “We went to our members and asked whether they thought we could provide sanctuary for him,” Kemper said. There was some discomfort in the congregation with the rushed decision process, Kemper said. “But nobody said, and nobody has since said, that they didn’t want us to be doing this.” Now, the church is dealing with the logistical challenges of providing sanctuary: finding 24/7 staffing to be in the building with Perez, bolstering security, installing a shower. Normally, the church’s doors are open to the community from morning to evening, but for now church officials are keeping the building locked to provide a secure place for Perez, Kemper said.

Like Perez, Morales is willing to keep fighting if it means a future, together, for her family here in the U.S. Some comforting news is that their churches are willing to stand by their side throughout: