Three immigrants living in the country without authorization who had previously taken sanctuary in Colorado churches to avoid deportation got some good news last week: The federal government would block any deportation proceedings against them for a year.

Jeanette Vizguerra (Denver), Arturo Hernandez Garcia (Denver) and Sandra Lopez (Carbondale) heard from U.S. Congressman Joe Neguse’s office that a request he made in January to President Joe Biden on their behalf and that of two others had been granted. The letter was also signed by the other Democrats in Colorado’s congressional delegation, Sen. Michael Bennet, Sen. John Hickenlooper, Rep. Diana DeGette, Rep. Ed Perlmutter and Rep. Jason Crow.

Ingrid Encalada Latorre in Boulder and Rosa Sabido in Mancos were granted stays of removal earlier, but on Dec. 20, Neguse and Perlmutter sent a letter to the Denver Immigration and Customs Enforcement Field Office reiterating the ask for Vizguerra, Garcia and Lopez.

“Sandra, Jeanette, and Arturo have lived in Colorado for decades, enriching the economy and adding value to the community,” the letter stated. “They should not have been priorities for deportation, and we ask that you use your authority to grant them each a stay of removal. Doing so would help keep families together and provide them with stability and hope.”

ICE officials have previously said they make arrests based on a case-by-case basis and follow directives from the federal government.

Not all five immigrants were living in churches at the time of the request, but several had previously taken refuge in them. Immigration and Customs Enforcement generally avoids sending officers inside “sensitive locations” or “protected areas” like houses of worship to detain immigrants living in the country without documentation.

In the letter to ICE, the congressmen noted that Lopez left sanctuary after ICE informed her she wasn’t a priority for deportation, but in 2010, when one of her children called 911 about an argument between Lopez and her husband, she was reported to ICE (before Colorado made that type of reporting between ICE and police illegal). She was arrested on domestic violence charges — which were dropped — but she was still placed in removal proceedings.

Garcia was in sanctuary for nine months until he was informed by ICE in 2015 that he wasn’t a priority for enforcement, according to the letter, but then he was detained in 2017 before Bennet and Permutter introduced private bills to get him a two-year deportation stay.

And Vizguerra, who lived in sanctuary until this latest stay was granted, had fled Mexico City because of violence in 1997 and then bought a fake Social Security card to get a job for her family, the letter stated. She never used it, the congressmen wrote, but officers found it during a traffic stop, and she pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor in 2009. In 2013, she was convicted for illegal entry after she went back to Mexico for her mom’s funeral. She spends much of her time advocating for immigrants and was named one of Time Magazine’s 100 most influential people in 2017.

Encalada Latorre was also previously convicted for using someone else’s Social Security number but was granted a pardon by Gov. Jared Polis in 2019. She now works to educate others on how to get employment without using fake documents.

At a news conference Wednesday afternoon, Vizguerra said she’s grateful for the stay, even though it’s only temporary.

“This is a year that we can keep fighting for our families, keep fighting for our communities,” she said, through a translator. “We the people who are immigrants have sustained this country, many of us on the frontlines of jobs during this pandemic. … We deserve to be recognized and we deserve a pathway to citizenship.”

Lopez also spoke at the conference, thanking supporters, the Biden administration and even the local ICE office because of the different policies it’s enforcing under the new administration.

Although immigrants living in sanctuary were able to get temporary stays for removal under former President Barack Obama, immigration attorneys say it was next to impossible under President Donald Trump. Congressional representatives turned instead to filing private bills for those in sanctuary — something Colorado representatives had done under previous administrations and which Neguse did most recently for Encalada Latorre and Sabido.

“It’s like a Christmas gift, a New Year’s gift, a gift that fell from the sky, for one year,” Lopez said.

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