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Third Undocumented Person Seeks Sanctuary In New Haven Church

First and Summerfield United Methodist Church
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A father of three sought sanctuary from deportation in a New Haven church on Thursday after the Board of Immigration Appeals denied his request for an emergency stay of removal Wednesday night.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, had ordered Nelson Pinos-Gonzalez to return to his native Ecuador by noon. 

Speaking to reporters through a Spanish interpreter at First and Summerfield United Methodist Church, Pinos says he will live there while he continues his immigration case.

“Tengo la familia…I made the hard decision of coming to this church because I have a family. I have a family to fight for. I have a family to strive for and I don’t want to abandon them.”

Pinos’s 15-year-old daughter, Kelly, says friends and classmates tried to help her change ICE’s decision.

“We had 500 postcards with two different pictures of me and my family. And on the back it had... please leave my friends, family here. They mean the dearest to me. And please let them stay.”

Pinos says he has no criminal record. He has lived in the United States since 1992. He is the third undocumented parent who has sought sanctuary in a New Haven church this year.

ICE considers churches, schools, and hospitals “sensitive locations” where officials will not enter. 

Copyright 2017 WSHU

Cassandra Basler comes to WSHU by way of Columbia Journalism School in New York City. She recently graduated with a Pulitzer Traveling Fellowship, which means she has two years to report on an issue anywhere in the world (she's still figuring out where she'd like to go). She grew up just north of Detroit, Michigan, where she worked for the local public radio affiliate. She also wrote about her adventures sampling the city cuisines for the first guidebook to be published in three decades, Belle Isle to 8 Mile: An Insider's Guide to Detroit. Before that, Cassandra studied English, German and Urban Studies at University of Michigan. When she's not reporting on wealth and poverty, she's writing about food and family.
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