PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — After 843 days living inside a West Philadelphia church in defiance of a deportation order, an immigrant family is celebrating ICE’s dismissal of their case.
Oneita and Clive Thompson, along with their two young children, lived inside a church for more than two years. But on Monday, they stood outside Tabernacle United Church at 37th and Chestnut streets after they received written confirmation that their deportation order was lifted.
“Some days I just wanted to hide deeper into the walls of the church,” said Oneita, “and some days I felt badass and wanted to kick the doors down.”
The family fled Jamaican gang violence 15 years ago, seeking refuge in America.
The couple has seven children; two are U.S. citizens. When they lost their asylum case in 2018, they made the decision to move into sanctuary with their two youngest children, or else risk being deported and separated from their other children.
Their older daughter, Angel, had received U.S. citizenship and applied to get permanent residency for her family.
“It’s just a joyous moment,” said Peter Pedemonti, co-director of New Sanctuary Movement of Philadelphia.
He said this is a major win for the Thompsons, but it took two years of fundraising and hard work.
“Having people send letters, make calls,” he said, “we’ve prayed, we’ve fasted.”
Pedemonti acknowledged sanctuary is no easy decision.
“A family moving into a congregation is hard. At times, it felt like they were in prison in the church,” he said. “It was overwhelming, then you add COVID on top of it — it was another layer of isolation.”
But Pedemonti said there’s still more work to do on other cases — Carmela Hernandez and her family, for instance, have been in sanctuary for three years to avoid deportation.
The Thompsons are now free of the threat of deportation, just in time to celebrate Christmas together.
One of their oldest sons — Clive Jr., a DACA recipient — left sanctuary earlier this year to attend Columbia University. The community raised $25,000 so he could move out of the church and live on campus.