For the first time in 15 months, Rosa Robles Loreto left the Tucson church where she sought sanctuary to avoid being deported.
“This is a wonderful thing,” she said to about 200 people gathered Wednesday at Southside Presbyterian Church, 317 W. 23rd St. She then added, “the struggle continues.”
Robles Loreto moved into the church when U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement issued a deportation order Aug. 8, 2014. The order stemmed from a traffic stop for an incorrect lane change.
ICE has maintained that she was not a high priority for deportation.
On Wednesday her lawyer, Margo Cowan, said she reached a confidential agreement with federal immigration authorities that allows Robles Loreto to live without fear of deportation.
“She’s fine. She’s protected. She has nothing to worry about,” Cowan said.
An ICE spokeswoman said the agency could not release information about immigration cases without the written consent of the individual involved.
Robles Loreto, a native of Mexico who has lived in Tucson since 1999, has said she sought sanctuary at the church because if she’d been deported, she would have been unable to legally return unless something in the law or her situation changed.
Flanked by her husband and two sons, she thanked her supporters, including the more than 9,000 Tucson families and businesses that put up signs saying “We stand with Rosa” on their properties.
“I carry you in my heart. I haven’t had the pleasure of seeing them yet, but I know it was a great support,” she told members of the crowd, who laughed and applauded.
Robles Loreto leaving sanctuary was an example of individual acts moving society along the “arc of justice,” Cowan said to the crowd.
“Across this country, thousands of families have said ‘We’re not leaving, we’re not giving up. We’re not going because somebody says we have to go, because there’s this lady in a church in Tucson and we’re going to follow her witness,’ ” Cowan said.
“I’m going home, but the struggle continues until there is reform. That’s what we need,” Robles Loreto said to reporters outside the church.
