Immigrant Family Seeking Sanctuary In Washington Heights Church Gets Support From Community

WASHINGTON HEIGHTS, NY — The Washington Heights community has pitched in to help a Guatemalan immigrant facing deportation who publicly took sanctuary Thursday at Holyrood Episcopal Church.

The rectory library which Amanda Morales and her three children — 9-year-old Dulce, 8-year-old Daniela and 2-year-old David —now call home was outfitted with bunk beds Friday, food donations are pouring into the church and local officials are planning to rally Monday morning at Federal Plaza to request a stay of deportation.

Yvonne Stennett, the executive director of the Community League of The Heights, told Patch that her organization was called on by City Councilman Ydanis Rodriguez to help Morales and her family while seeking sanctuary.

"I asked Amanda, 'What do you need?' and of course when we looked in the room they were sleeping on air beds that were deflating," Stennett told Patch. "So the immediate need was to make sure they were living in comfort and able to sleep."

Stennett said that her organization will be keeping Morales and her family company during her time in sanctuary. When summer ends and Morales' two older children return to school, CLOTH will help escort the kids between school and the church.

Holyrood Episcopal Church, located on the corner of West 179th Street and Fort Washington Avenue, belongs to the New Sanctuary Coalition of NYC, an interfaith network that helps immigrants.Father Luis Barrios, of Holyrood Church, said that any immigrant who needs sanctuary will be taken in.

"We cannot be indifferent to human suffering", Barrios said Thursday at a press conference.

Morales has been living in the United States since 2004, Rev. Juan Carlos Ruiz of the New Sanctuary Coalition told Patch. In 2012, she was a passenger in a car involved in an accident which triggered her identification as an undocumented immigrant, Ruiz said. Since the car accident, she has lived in the United States under supervision of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and has met with federal officials on a monthly basis.

In May, she was told to book a one-way ticket to Guatemala and bring it to her next meeting. On the day of the meeting she went to Holyrood Episcopal Church instead of Federal Plaza.

"I am scared, but at the same time I feel safe here," Morales said during a Thursday press conference at the church.

Ruiz told Patch that he believes Morales is being deported due to a "hyped up" culture of enforcement at ICE under the Donald Trump administration.

Although ICE is legally allowed to enter the church, there's a long-standing practice that "sensible" places such as schools and places of worship are off limits, Ruiz said.

"We are kind of betting on this long tradition that there are these sensible places," Ruiz told Patch.

"Even the current administration has said that they will not violate spaces like churches, like hospitals, like schools. So we are counting on that, we are standing on those grounds that they will have some respect for the religious beliefs of our people, for our belief that nobody should be separated from their families and their communities."

Photos by Patch