Immigration and Customs Enforcement
Last North Carolina immigrant to take sanctuary at a church goes home
By Yonat Shimron — April 19, 2021
(RNS) — Juana Luz Tobar Ortega was the first person to seek church sanctuary in North Carolina in 2017 and she is the last to leave.
Another NC man is free to leave church sanctuary as immigration policies ease
By Yonat Shimron — March 24, 2021
(RNS) — Eliseo Jimenez, a 42-year-old itinerant laborer who worked in the state’s tobacco fields and later in construction laying floors, has been living at Umstead Park United Church of Christ since Oct. 9, 2017.
Two more leave church sanctuary as immigration policies ease
By Yonat Shimron — February 24, 2021
(RNS) — The two are the latest beneficiaries of new Biden administration guidelines that restrain ICE from arresting and deporting undocumented immigrants who do not pose a threat to public safety.
As Biden floats immigration plan, Edith Espinal leaves 3-year stint in sanctuary
By Yonat Shimron — February 18, 2021
(RNS) — The 43-year-old Mexican native was allowed to go home on the same day President Joe Biden unveiled his immigration overhaul to Congress.
Their hopes dashed by a Texas judge, immigrants living in churches wait for a reprieve
By Yonat Shimron and Jack Jenkins — January 29, 2021
(RNS) — Now that a Texas judge has barred part of President Biden's deportation moratorium, immigrants living in church sanctuary are searching for solutions. Thirty lawmakers want to help.
With new executive order, this immigrant is leaving church sanctuary after 3.5 years
By Yonat Shimron — January 21, 2021
DURHAM, N.C. — Dozens of others who took sanctuary in churches after former President Trump’s aggressive deportation policies are now checking with their lawyers to see if it might be safe for them to leave.
Charged with 2 felonies for protesting, the Rev. Greg Drumwright is marching on
By Yonat Shimron — December 1, 2020
GRAHAM, N.C. (RNS) — Drumwright’s activism may have found his greatest impact close to home, in North Carolina’s Alamance County — a bastion of racialized policing.
Priest supports whistleblower allegations at ICE facility as Christian leaders weigh in
By Emily McFarlan Miller — September 23, 2020
(RNS) — Sister Simone Campbell and the presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America are among those calling for Homeland Security to investigate allegations of neglect and a high rate of hysterectomies at an immigrant detention center.
Muslim ICE detainees in Miami forced to choose between pork or rotten halal food, lawyers say
By Aysha Khan — August 19, 2020
(RNS) — The ICE chaplain reportedly dismissed Muslim detainees' repeated complaints by saying, ‘It is what it is,’ the legal advocates allege.
Immigrants in detention don’t deserve a death sentence
By Alexia Salvatierra and Carlos L. Malave — April 4, 2020
(RNS) — At a time when jails and prisons are releasing inmates, it makes sense to extend the same precautions to detained immigrants.
Federal court protects woman who took sanctuary in a church from deportation
By Yonat Shimron — February 28, 2020
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. (RNS) — A woman who fled Honduras after her partner stabbed her multiple times and has lived in church sanctuary for nearly two years is entitled to stay in the United States, a panel of federal judges ruled.
At a church forum, Elizabeth Warren says she is open to suspending deportations
By Yonat Shimron — November 8, 2019
RALEIGH, N.C. (RNS) — Speaking at Umstead Park United Church of Christ, Warren was grilled about economic and political issues at a forum organized by the national Latino advocacy organization Mijente.
Minnesota clergy, ICE critics want bishop name off building
By Steve Karnowski — October 30, 2019
(AP) — The Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building, which houses the Minneapolis-area offices of Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Department of Homeland Security, was named for an Episcopal leader who defended Native Americans.
ICE drops $300,000 fine for an immigrant in church sanctuary
By Yonat Shimron — October 25, 2019
(RNS) — ICE spokesman Richard A. Rocha confirmed that his office has dropped the fines for eight undocumented immigrants.
We are too old not to get arrested for children at the border
By Phyllis Berman and Arthur Waskow — September 9, 2019
(RNS) — As parents and grandparents, as teachers and rabbis and as Jews, we understand that these children and their families will be traumatized for generations to come.
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