Rosa Robles Loreto has never made a big deal out of her birthday. Normally, it’s been just another day at work followed by dinner with her husband and two sons.
But this year, her big day started off Monday with dozens of people canvassing and sharing her story through Tucson neighborhoods, and culminated in a community birthday party with cake and a piñata.
It’s all part of the latest effort by Keep Tucson Together to raise awareness about the 42-year-old Mexico native — who has been in sanctuary at Southside Presbyterian Church since last August — and thousands of parents like her, they said, who face deportation.
The “25 Days for Rosa” campaign involves distributing 5,000 signs with the words “We Stand with Rosa” to be placed in front of homes and businesses throughout Tucson from her birthday through Aug. 7 — her anniversary inside the church.
“I feel positive,” Robles Loreto said. “I hope it works.”
When she first went into sanctuary, she said, she thought it would be a couple of weeks, maybe even a month, but never imagined she would celebrate her birthday away from her home.
Robles Loreto’s troubles began in 2010, when a Pima County sheriff deputy stopped her for a minor traffic violation and called the Border Patrol because she was in the country illegally.
After poor legal representation, her new attorney said, Robles Loreto was ordered to leave the country and sought sanctuary to keep fighting her case.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement has said Robles Loreto is not a priority for deportation, but has denied her petition to get a stay of removal — which would mean she would not be deported for at least a year — or to administratively close her case.
Through the new campaign, supporters are hoping to continue to exert pressure on immigration officials until Robles Loreto gets something in writing that she can show if she gets stopped, her attorney Margo Cowan said.
“I don’t think Rosa’s case is stuck because of Rosa,” she said, “it’s stuck because of a fluid political policy movement.”
But sooner or later they will prevail, Cowan said. “I have no doubt of that.”
Dozens of volunteers gathered at the headquarters off Osborne Avenue on Monday morning, grabbed signs and clipboards to go door to door, asking residents if they could place a sign in their front yard or outside their business.
After two unanswered knocks and a “no,” Cecilia Valenzuela Gee and Ryan Tombleson cheered when they placed their first sign.
“Thank you so much,” Valenzuela Gee told the homeowner. “This is a great help.”
Each sign, she said, “represents hope that people are supporting us and that this might have the impact we want it to have.”
For Tombleson, a University of Arizona student, every sign “is a sign that the community doesn’t tolerate the injustice going on with Rosa. It’s very motivating.”
Robles Loreto’s only birthday wish Monday was for her prompt return to her home and to her family without the fear of deportation — even if it’s only temporary.
