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GUEST: Liliana, undocumented immigrant who faces deportation, Cyndi Villanueva, bi-Lingual Secretary at Saint Luke’s Episcopal Church, Angela Thielen, KPFK volunteer interpreter

This past May, immigration enforcement agents arrived at the home of an undocumented Oxnard woman in order to deport her. The woman, who goes by the name Liliana, has a husband and three children who are all U.S. citizens. Liliana was ordered to report to a detention center within five days of the house visit to prepare for her deportation. The deportation order stems from 1998, when Liliana attempted to use a forged birth certificate to enter the US. Faced with the dilemma of family separation, she sought sanctuary in congregations throughout Ventura County. No congregations in the immediate area had joined the newly emerging sanctuary movement in her time of need, but a Catholic deacon and his wife offered to shelter Liliana and her infant son. She stayed with the couple for three weeks before finding sanctuary far from home at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Long Beach. For nearly two months Liliana and her son have lived in a converted church office building while the rest of her family comes to visit on weekends. A church much closer to home in Simi Valley recently voted to become a sanctuary congregation and may eventually house Liliana as she fights to stay in the United States with her family.

There will be an emergency demonstration this Friday July 27th at 5:30 pm in front of the Federal Building in Downtown Los Angeles in protest of the on-going ICE raids.

There will also be a counter-protest to the Minuteman Project and Save Our State protests at St Luke’s Episcopal church. The counter protest will be on Saturday July 28th from 10 am until 12 noon at 525 E. 7th Street in Long Beach.

Later in the evening at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, there will be a potluck with guest speakers on the sanctuary movement from 5pm – 7pm.