Daniel Neyoy Ruiz, his wife and son are on the move.
The family, which had spent nearly a month in church sanctuary to protest a deportation order last year, is moving forward, on and up. The family is moving into a new home, Neyoy is working without the fear of being deported to Mexico and the family is looking ahead.
“It’s been better,” said 13-year-old Carlos Daniel Neyoy, the U.S.-born son of Daniel and his wife, Karla Stahlkopff. Lots better since the family walked out of the Southside Presbyterian Church and into a hopeful future. Daniel Neyoy Ruiz’s deportation stay was issued in June.
The eighth-grade student at Challenger Middle School was joyful when I met with him and his parents Thursday night in their new home near South 12th Avenue and West Elvira Street. Their lives have turned from uncertain to tranquil.
“We were in the shadows but when we came out, it gave us a chance to breathe,” Stahlkopff said in Spanish.
Now the Neyoy family wants the same for another Tucson family.
The family has joined with others to push the U.S. government to grant the family of Rosa Robles Loreto the same opportunity to move beyond fear. Robles Loreto, a wife and mother, has been in sanctuary at Southside since Aug. 7 last year, waiting, hoping and praying for a stay of deportation from Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Keep Tucson Together intends to widen the campaign to support Robles Loreto, using social media, hashtags #LetRosaStay, #KeepTucsonTogether, letter writing and good ol’ fashioned lawn signs with the words “We Stand With Rosa.”
The Neyoy family has been in near daily contact with Robles Loreto. They visit, talk by telephone or exchange spirit-lifting messages on Facebook.
“She’s been down sometimes, but she is a strong person,” said Daniel, who came with his wife to this country without authorization. They came to work and improve their lives.
While the Neyoy family was in sanctuary together, Robles Loreto’s husband and two sons visit her. And a large circle of support surrounds the Neyoy family and now Robles Loreto, said Daniel, 37, whose father is an evangelical preacher in Mexico.
Karla, 34, said that while in sanctuary, “Strangers, total strangers, gave us the feeling that we, too, have rights.”
Immigrant families, regardless of their legal status, have universal rights. The first one being keeping families together.
The push for a deportation stay for the Neyoy family, as well as the family of Francisco Perez Cordova, who was in sanctuary last year for 94 days at St. Francis in the Foothills United Methodist Church, transcends Tucson. It’s a movement in support of millions of immigrant families across the country, who face the prospect of deportation or who have already been deported and separated.
Neyoy struggled to maintain his family together after he was stopped in 2011 by an Arizona Department of Public Safety officer. Daniel’s vehicle was emitting smoke. He was turned over to ICE. His story is typical of too many other undocumented immigrants who are detained by local and state police officers on minor vehicle violations and then, when they can’t prove their legal status, are turned over to immigration officers.
The family remained steadfast. The family did not bend. The family sacrificed.
“The value of the family is universal,” said Karla.
The future is clearer. Daniel is working and paying taxes. Still he has to renew his stay of deportation. If his stay becomes permanent, Daniel and Karla can apply for residency and eventual citizenship when Carlos turns 21. By then Carlos said he expects to be in college, preferably in California.
Even if a second deportation order were to stun the family, Carlos said he would gladly re-enter sanctuary with his parents.
“Me and my family think we should be together,” Carlos said. “As long as we’re together, we have a chance.”
