After years living in a New Haven church, Nelson Pinos is returning home to his family. The Ecuadorian immigrant entered church sanctuary to avoid deportation.
“I’m very happy and full of emotions to know I have been granted one year of relief,” Pinos said in Spanish.
Pinos is the last of eight residents who entered sanctuary in Connecticut to pack his bags and leave. Standing just outside his small bedroom at First and Summerfield United Methodist Church, Pinos said it’s been four years since he initially took refuge here.
His attorney, Glenn Formica, says this one-year stay of deportation marks the beginning of a process to find new legal remedies. But there aren’t many.
“Nelson’s case will require threading a needle in the dark. And that’s not just Nelson’s case. That’s true of most immigration cases since 1996,” Formica said. “There are very few legal options for people to get permanent residence.”
Pinos, 47, has been living in the U.S. for 29 years. He crossed the U.S.-Mexico border on foot in 1992. A year later, he was arrested in a raid in Minneapolis, and an immigration judge issued a deportation order. Pinos did not find out about the order until decades later. He moved to Connecticut and worked in a factory, and in October 2017 immigration officials ordered his deportation. Pinos, a father of three, chose to enter sanctuary to avoid deportation.
Nelson Pinos entered sanctuary in 2017. In 2019 after exhausting his savings, he began to risk possible arrest by leaving the church, and would go back and forth to earn money.
“I’ve lost my money, my car, but those are material things I can recover. What I won’t be able to get back is the time I missed out with my children,” Pinos said.
Advocates and faith leaders say they’ll continue to support Pinos and his family.
“It’s a bittersweet victory,” said John Lugo, director at Unidad Latina en Acción, a New Haven-based organization. “But a small victory that gives millions some hope.”
As Pinos prepares to leave sanctuary, he says his bedroom just behind the church’s altar has allowed him to find tranquility amid a time of tempest.
“Above all, I’ve found peace of mind with all of the support I’ve had. This place became my home for four years,” Pinos said.
