Hand in hand, Oneita and Clive Thompson danced out of the Tabernacle United Church in Philadelphia, their fists raised in victory. The Jamaican couple had spent almost two and a half years residing in church buildings to keep away from deportation.
Lastly, they might stroll free.
“We received,” Ms. Thompson, 48, instructed supporters who had gathered outdoors the church this week with bells and handmade indicators. It had been a grueling battle with many setbacks, however she mentioned she had by no means misplaced hope that this present day would come.
In 2018, after 14 years residing and dealing legally in the USA and elevating their seven youngsters, Ms. Thompson mentioned she obtained startling information from Immigration and Customs Enforcement: She and her husband had 4 days to pack up and go away the nation.
The couple had immigrated to the USA in 2004, fleeing gang violence and in search of asylum. Their software was denied, however they have been granted permission, in one-year increments, to remain. They purchased a house in Cedarville, N.J., the place Ms. Thompson labored as a nursing assistant caring for older individuals, and Mr. Thompson as a heavy machine operator.
However because the Trump administration cracked down on immigration, the life they’d labored to construct was all of a sudden upended.
Returning to Jamaica would imply having to separate from their youngsters, because it was too harmful to take them there, Ms. Thompson mentioned.
“It wasn’t even an choice,” she mentioned.
She contacted Peter Pedemonti, co-director of the New Sanctuary Motion of Philadelphia, who introduced what felt to her like the one viable choice: in search of sanctuary in a church. For many years, households have lived in church buildings to keep away from deportation and purchase time to influence immigration officers to permit them to remain. ICE has designated homes of worship “delicate places” and sometimes stays away from them.
Throughout the nation, about 40 individuals at the moment are residing in sanctuary in church buildings, a follow that lengthy predates President Trump, Mr. Pedemonti mentioned. However the size of their sanctuary has stretched longer and longer because the administration has radically modified immigration legal guidelines, making it harder to get asylum.
In one other Philadelphia church, a girl from Mexico has been in sanctuary along with her 4 youngsters for 3 years, he mentioned.
“Throughout the Trump administration, we have now had households who’ve spent half or three-quarters of his time period taking refuge in congregations, preventing to maintain their households collectively,” Mr. Pedemonti mentioned. “As a rustic, we have to sit with that for a minute.”
In August 2018, the Thompsons packed up their belongings and moved into First United Methodist Church of Germantown with two of their youngsters, saying goodbye to the skin world. 4 of their youngsters not lived at dwelling, and one stayed there alone. The household lived within the church for 2 years earlier than shifting to Tabernacle United Church in September.
“Going behind the partitions of a church, you can’t see by means of the stained glass home windows,” Ms. Thompson mentioned. “It’s like a jail away from jail. I might not want that on my worst enemy.”
The 2 youngsters who joined them have been each minors on the time and, as a result of they’re U.S. residents, they have been free to return and go. However their mother and father may solely go so far as the church doorway, the place they waved goodbye every morning as their youngsters left for varsity.
The couple spent their days praying, fasting and attempting to remain wholesome regardless of the isolation by consuming inexperienced smoothies and exercising. They emailed Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey, Senator Bob Casey of Pennsylvania and Consultant Dwight Evans of Pennsylvania, all of whom visited them within the church and supported their trigger.
On the similar time, members of the New Sanctuary Motion have been holding protests and vigils outdoors ICE places of work.
Each month, Ms. Thompson cooked a Jamaican dinner, bringing a whole bunch of individuals collectively to boost cash for the household, because the couple may not work however nonetheless had youngsters to help and a mortgage to pay.
These dinners stopped when the coronavirus pandemic swept the nation, deepening their sense of seclusion.
“When Covid hit, isolation isn’t even the phrase,” Ms. Thompson mentioned. “You are feeling like you have got no one in any respect. You’re simply standing within the partitions of the church.”
After greater than two years of confinement, the couple bought phrase in November that assist would arrive through their eldest daughter. As a result of she is a U.S. citizen, she was allowed to submit a “petition for an alien relative,” giving the Thompsons a path to remain within the nation legally. However earlier than they might apply, ICE needed to help reopening their case and dropping the deportation order.
Ms. Thompson bought the information on Dec. 10. She instantly printed out the e-mail so it felt actual.
“I needed to bodily take a look at it, contact it,” she mentioned. “I actually felt numb.”
When the Thompsons lastly walked outdoors freely, Mr. Thompson couldn’t cease dancing. Ms. Thompson requested what was going by means of his thoughts, and his ideas completely echoed hers.
“My spirit is free,” he replied.