Mother Seeks Refuge from ICE in Salt Lake City Church

  Instead of boarding a flight deporting her to one of the world's most dangerous cities, a Utah mother, Vicky Chavez, turned her vehicle around and headed for a church offering sanctuary for her and her two children.

    U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) does not normally seek out immigrants in sensitive locations, such as churches. One can only wonder if other immigrants will follow, and sanctuary in Salt Lake area churches will become somewhat common. 

   And one can wonder why it is mothers being caught in the federal agents' net. On Christmas night, Maria Santiago Garcia and her four children boarded an American Airlines flight for Guatemala, being forced to leave America by ICE agents. So, Chavez would have been at least the second mother deported in just more than a month, had she continued to the airport instead of reversing course and heading for sanctuary.

   Court precedence suggests offering sanctuary is not illegal, as long as the sanctuary is not hiding the immigrants by failing to disclose they are there. So, the First Unitarian Church of Salt Lake City and the volunteers there with Chavez and her two daughters might be safe in providing protection for the family. If ICE does come calling it will break precedence, but not be breaking any statute.

(Note: Reading further news accounts suggests that while Vicky's decision to go to the sanctuary came at the last moment, she might have made that decision before actually starting to drive towards the airport.)