NEW ORLEANS – After spending the last seven months avoiding deportation by taking sanctuary in a church, Jose Torres is free to leave.

Torres is an immigrant from El Salvador, who came to the U.S. in 2005 and helped the rebuilding of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.

Although Torres is not a U.S. citizen, Immigration and Customs Enforcement notified him in 2016 that he had been granted a “stay of deportation” based on his care for his two American-born daughters and his work in local construction.  But last November, ICE changed course, and told Torres that he would have to leave the country willingly or federal agents would deport him.

Instead, on November 15th, Torres entered First Grace United Methodist Church on Canal Street– and stayed there.  First Grace is one of fewer than 20 churches across the country that have given long-term refuge to immigrants fearing deportation.

Pastor Shawn Anglim welcomed Torres into his church’s protection, and ICE stayed away.  According to Loyola University Law Professor Bill Quigley, who’s also the church’s attorney, the federal government “discourages” ICE raids at churches and schools,” but nothing in the law prohibits them. With the Trump administration’s crack down on illegal immigration, Torres risked being arrested even in the church.

But on Monday (June 25), Torres’ lawyers reached an agreement with ICE that will allow Torres to remain in the U.S. indefinitely without fear of being deported, as long as he checks in with ICE once a month.  The New Orleans Workers’ Center for Racial Justice credits “pressure from the New Orleans community” for the about-face.

Torres is free to leave the church, and free to speak out. He’s a leader in the Congress of Day Laborers, a local immigrant rights group, and as he left a meeting with ICE today he immediately began urging supporters to join him in a protest march on Saturday, June 30, to demand the “abolition of ICE and an end to family separations.”

At a small celebration at First Grace United Methodist Church tonight, Torres told WGNO through a translator that he’s grateful for community support, and that when he breathes now, “the air is mine.”