Mother facing deportation seeks sanctuary in Georgia Catholic mission

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A pregnant El Salvadorian woman who has been ordered deported for illegally entering the U.S. has fled to an Atlanta-area Catholic mission, where she is seeking sanctuary with her two young children.

Claudia Mariela Jurado recently cut off the electronic monitoring bracelet immigration authorities had attached to her ankle. She absconded after she was asked to report to them Friday for her removal. Now living in a converted office at Our Lady of the Americas Catholic Mission in Lilburn, Jurado said she left El Salvador because a gang extorted money from her there.

A Catholic, she said she will stay at the mission until “God decides” otherwise. “I’m afraid for my life,” she said through an interpreter Sunday about the possibility of returning to her native country.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s policy says the agency generally does not pursue people in sensitive areas like churches unless there are special circumstances, such as public safety threats. The agency released a statement about Jurado’s case, saying she “has been afforded full due process in compliance with federal law and ICE policy.”

“After she illegally entered the United States in December, a federal immigration judge ordered her removed to El Salvador following a comprehensive hearing on the merits of her case in April,” ICE’s statement says.

A similar case in Arizona drew national attention last year. That’s when Daniel Neyoy Ruiz was granted a one-year reprieve from deportation after living for three weeks at a Presbyterian church in Tucson.