This article highlights the mental distress that immigrants living in sanctuary experience and depicts Hilda’s experience in her home country and the Karnes Detention Center.
Hilda Ramirez is an asylum-seeker from Guatemala who came to the United States in 2014 after fleeing domestic violence. Ramirez and her son, Ivan, now 13, were detained for 11 months in ICE’s Karnes County Residential Center in South Texas. After their release in July 2015, they lived in a shelter in Austin for a couple of months, during which time Ramirez wore an ankle bracelet and had regular check-ins with ICE. Because an immigration judge denied her asylum case, Ramirez has a pending deportation order.
In February 2016, fearing immigration raids, she decided to seek protection by moving into the St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church in Austin (it is against ICE’s policy to enforce immigration laws inside churches). Ramirez was previously granted deferred action, a temporary delay of deportation, but in March of this year, ICE denied her an extension. Recently, Congressman Joaquin Castro showed his support for Ramirez and Ivan by introducing a private bill to give them permanent status or a visa. Ramirez and Ivan are among 50 undocumented immigrants nationwide publicly known to be living in sanctuary. The church has been their home for almost four years. As told to Isabela Dias.
Click here to read the full article