Immigrant advocates in Colorado and elsewhere in the country say is an affront to the sanctuary movement that provides refuge to people living in the U.S. illegally who face deportation.
“We believe that the sanctuary movement created a certain protection for those in need and we are seeing the administration seems to be threatening or challenging that protection,” said the Rev. Noel Andersen, national grassroots organizer for Church World Service. “From a faith perspective, it does make us wonder: What kind of message is the administration trying to send us?”
Hernandez Garcia was at work on Wednesday morning when U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers detained him unexpectedly. In October 2014, he took refuge in the basement of a Denver church for nine months, returning to his family in , after ICE sent him letter saying he was no longer an enforcement priority.
“I think that I speak for those who are engaged in sanctuary across the country that we deeply understand how serious the administration is about their priorities and about taking people out of our communities,” said Jennifer Piper, interfaith organizer in Denver for the American Friends Service Committee.
Hernandez Garcia was the first person to seek sanctuary in Colorado, helping to make the Mile High City a hub for the movement. Several others living in the country illegally across the U.S. have sought refuge since and the practice has swept across the nation.
“Since the election, we have seen sanctuary congregations multiply,” said Anderson, who has called Denver a hotspot for the movement. He wondered “was this something that ICE did on purpose because of the public nature of Arturo’s case?”
By Thursday morning, Hernandez Garcia was being held at a contract federal detention center in Aurora pending his removal from the country, according to ICE and his supporters.
“Hernandez Garcia has overstayed his original, six-month visa by nearly 14 years,” ICE spokesman Carl Rusnok said in a written statement Wednesday. “He has exhausted his petitions through the immigration courts and through ICE. He is currently in ICE custody pending his removal.”
Hernandez Garcia’s lawyer has been working on a request to stop the deportation. In the meantime, his wife and two daughters — an 11-year-old who is a U.S. citizen and a 17-year-old with deferred action status — are anxiously awaiting what will happen next.
“It’s been very difficult, the impact on me and my daughters,” said Ana Sauzameda, Hernandez Garcia’s wife. “We had a terrible day yesterday. It’s impossible to think or to know what we should do next.”
Protesters gathered outside of the ICE regional headquarters in Centennial on Wednesday afternoon.
Hernandez Garcia came to the attention of immigration officers in 2010 after an altercation at a job site where he and his crew were laying tile. He was arrested but later was acquitted of all charges. However, an immigration judge ordered his deportation in 2014.
Since coming to the U.S. in 1999, Hernandez Garcia applied a half-dozen times for some kind of legal status or discretion in his immigration case.
Hernandez Garcia at the First Unitarian Society of Denver near Cheesman Park to avoid deportation. His story became a focal point in the immigration debate after drawing the attention of national media outlets. Sanctuary is a tradition dating to the Middle Ages that has been accepted in America for generations, with government officials, in most instances, honoring the practice.
At seeking sanctuary. And of becoming sanctuaries.
One of those in sanctuary in Denver , who is living in the basement of the First Unitarian Society of Denver as Hernandez Garcia did. The mother of four, including three children who are U.S. citizens, was named last week in the world for her work in the immigration-rights movement.
Sauzameda says itap possible that her husband is being targeted because of the notoriety of Vizguerra’s case. A “community gala” was held Tuesday night to recognize Vizguerra’s TIME honor.
'Arturo's detention as an attack on the entire movement.' Jeanette Vizguerra
— AFSC (@afsc_org)
“We wonder is this an attack on the sanctuary movement as a way to intimidate us as we continue to grow stronger with more people involved every day,” Vizguerra said Thursday during a conference call with reporters. “But what is worse is how the families suffer from separation. In one moment, in one instant, we see that the life of Arturo’s family could be permanently changed.”
Vizguerra says Hernandez Garcia’s arrest has impacted the whole “sanctuary family … and the fact they are tearing apart his family means they have touched all of us who are part of the sanctuary movement.”
She also lamented the possibility of staying in sanctuary for years, until President Donald Trump is out of office.
“It’s not easy to think about having to wait four years until the Trump administration might end,” she said. “We are frustrated by this situation and it makes me wonder why the administration is trying to tear up what could be very harmonious communities and a harmonious country.”
