Immigrant Family Who Took Sanctuary At Germantown Church To Avoid Deportation Eager To Live Freely In Philadelphia
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Next week, an immigrant woman and her children will be able to walk freely outside of a Germantown church without the threat of deportation. They sought sanctuary at the First United Methodist Church of Germantown for the last year-and-a-half.
She fled to the U.S. from Honduras.
For more than 500 days, Suyapa Reyes has not been able to walk off church grounds for fear of deportation. But now she says she's ready to restart her life as a free woman, with her kids by her side.
"For me, this place has been my home. It has been a space that has opened up for me," Reyes said.
And now, it's a space Reyes is preparing to leave. Eyewitness News spoke to Reyes through a translator.
"For me, what I'm looking forward to is to provide for my children and to be able to struggle and survive with them and to also be able to continue to be involved and support other people that are also taking sanctuary and are in different places like I was," Reyes said.
Reyes is originally from Honduras. Her family came to the U.S. in 2012, claiming asylum but their case was denied in 2018.
To avoid deportation, she took sanctuary.
"If she didn't decide to take sanctuary and she was deported or she decided to go back herself, she would probably wouldn't be alive right now," said Blanca Pacheco, co-director of the New Sanctuary Movement.
The New Sanctuary Movement helps families like Reyes'.
The church says it's been a sanctuary church for the last 30 years. They say it's part of their overall mission.
"If there is some injustice in the world, there's somebody at this church that's working on it," said Beverly Lucas.
As for Reyes, she nears her last days at the church. She says she's looking forward to what Philly has to offer.
Next week, Reyes and her children will take part in a walk to freedom. It's when she will walk off the church grounds for the first time in a year-and-a-half.
Eyewitness News reached out to Immigration and Customs Enforcement on the case but have not heard back.