A mother of three who is expecting her fourth child in July took sanctuary inside a church on Chicago’s South Side, saying she was told she could be deported to Mexico as soon as this week.
But hours after the Tribune reported on her plight, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agreed to let her stay in the United States until after her baby is born.
Adilene Marquina Adam, 34, said she had been told to report to an ICE office on Thursday with proof of tickets showing the family was going to leave the country and return to Mexico.
Instead, the family this week decided to take refuge inside a small storefront church, the Faith, Life and Hope Mission, on bustling 63rd Street in the Chicago Lawn neighborhood. Marquina Adam, who is about two months from her due date, said she hasn’t been able to sleep for the past three days, unsure of the future of her family.
“I’m scared,” Marquina Adam said in Spanish. “I’m very scared that at any moment (ICE) will arrive, that they will break the doors and that they will forcefully enter for us.”
But by Thursday afternoon, Marquina Adam was told she would be allowed to continue her pregnancy in the U.S. and would not have to check in again with ICE until Oct. 23, she said. An electronic monitor ICE officials had placed on her ankle was also removed, though the mother still faces deportation. She has until October to get an itinerary together showing she and one of her sons, who is not a U.S. citizen, will return to Mexico.
For now, though, she feels a sense of calm knowing they can at least step outside of the church.
” ‘Mama, the air feels so rich,’ ” Marquina Adam said her son told her in Spanish after hearing the news of the extension.
In a statement earlier Thursday, ICE said an immigration judge ordered Marquina Adam return to Mexico last October.
“One of ICE’s primary missions is to carry out the orders of federal immigration judges,” ICE said in the statement. “Current ICE policy directs agency personnel to avoid conducting enforcement activities at sensitive locations unless they have prior approval from an appropriate supervisory official or in the event of exigent circumstances. … The locations specified in the guidance include schools, places of worship and hospitals.”
ICE declined to comment later on why Marquina Adam’s and her son’s deportations were delayed.
The Rev. Jose S. Landaverde, a longtime immigration advocate, opened up the church, known in Spanish as the Mision Fe, Vida y Esperanza, to the family. He said they are among more than a dozen families in similar situations.
“We aren’t hiding them,” Landaverde said in Spanish. “We are giving them sanctuary under the laws of God.”
Marquina Adam’s legal odyssey began in January 2015 when she and her son Johan Hernandez, now 14, traveled to the U.S. border and turned themselves over to authorities at a port of entry near San Diego to seek asylum. The family fled the Mexican coastal city of Acapulco because of threats from gang members, Marquina Adam said.
She was released from immigration custody the following month pending the outcome of the case, according to court records provided by the family. The mother was released from custody under ICE’s alternative to detention program aimed at people who don’t pose a threat to the community but still have to attend immigration court hearings, according to a statement from the federal agency.
It was the second time she had migrated to the United States. In the early 2000s, she said she entered the country without legal paperwork and lived in California for about two years. During this time, she had her oldest son, Jesus Hernandez, who is a U.S. citizen. She returned to Mexico and lived there until her return to the U.S. in 2015, she said. While her 2015 immigration case was pending, she had her third son, Joshua Pino, who is also a U.S. citizen.
Her asylum claim plodded along in immigration court in Chicago until Oct. 31, 2018, when a judge denied her request and ordered she be removed from the country, according to court records provided by the family. However, Marquina Adam said she didn’t realize the judge’s decision meant she would actually be deported and she continued to cooperate when ICE officials would check in by phone.
It wasn’t until she was told in April to go to ICE’s Chicago office that she was informed she had been ordered to be deported, Marquina Adam said. She returned to ICE’s office in Chicago two more times in the past month, including once when officials placed an electronic monitor on her ankle. After that, she decided to seek sanctuary in the church.
“We want to continue forward (in the U.S.),” she said in Spanish. “We want to have a house. We want our children to accomplish their dreams.”
At the church Wednesday, Marquina Adam, wearing the ankle monitor, sat with her three sons. Two women stopped by to drop off toiletries for the family while a third woman came with prepared food. Joshua, 3, kept himself entertained by running around, stopping occasionally to hug his mother.
She was worried about what will happen if she gives birth to her daughter while in the process of being deported. Her due date is July 23, and she plans to name the baby Yatzali.
But Marquina Adam said she is also worried about her sons — who have mixed immigration statuses — and wants them to stay in the U.S., pointing out her children aren’t criminals.
“They want to go to school, and it breaks my heart because they have hopes,” Marquina Adam said in Spanish. “They have dreams, and I can’t send them to school.”
emalagon@chicagotribune.com
Twitter @ElviaMalagon
