Vicky Chavez, Daughters Free To Leave Sanctuary At Salt Lake City Church
Apr 15, 2021, 2:12 PM | Updated: Apr 16, 2021, 12:01 am
SALT LAKE CITY, Utah – Vicky Chavez, the Utah woman who has lived in sanctuary at a Salt Lake City church for the past three years with her daughters, said she can now leave the church.
Chavez announced Thursday that she has been granted a one-year stay of removal, which allows her to leave without fear of being deported to her native Honduras.
The stay of removal followed a previous announcement from President Joe Biden in which he said U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents would detain only people in the U.S. illegally and who pose a threat to national security.
Vicky Chavez, the woman who spent more than three years in sanctuary in the First Unitarian Church, takes her first steps outside the church after getting a one-year stay of removal. pic.twitter.com/CxqpqCUXA6
— Paul Nelson (@KSLPaul) April 15, 2021
That was supposed to be her fate back in 2018. She had exhausted all appeals of a deportation order and was even headed to the airport when she accepted an offer from the First Unitarian Church to take refuge there.
Chavez fled her home country in 2014 because of an abusive boyfriend and said returning to Honduras would put her three-year-old and nine-year-old daughters in danger.
The mayors of Salt Lake City and Salt Lake County were at a Thursday news conference where Chavez made her announcement in front of a group of supporters.