A Peruvian immigrant who took sanctuary in a Massachusetts church to avoid being deported has been given a one-year stay of removal by U.S. Immigration officials.
Gisella Collazo, the mother of two American kids and wife of an American citizen, had faced ouster earlier this year under President Donald Trump’s zero-tolerance immigration policies.
So in March, she entered sanctuary at the South Congregational Church in Springfield, Mass., to avoid being deported.
But Collazo is now free to leave the church after Immigration and Customs Enforcement granted her a one-year-stay.
"I feel happy because I will be at my house with my family. I will be able to do things independently again, take my children to the park peacefully and live our life normally," Collazo told WBUR News.
The Peruvian native entered the U.S. in 2001 and married an American citizen four years later.
She told MassLive that she began pursuing a change in her immigration status in 2006 and had a permit to work in the U.S. But in recent years, her status was affected by what she said were "multiple attorney errors" in her bid to become a citizen.
Collazo sought sanctuary in the church after immigration officials ordered her to leave the country immediately.
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