You turn to us for voices you won't hear anywhere else.

Sign up for Democracy Now!'s Daily Digest to get our latest headlines and stories delivered to your inbox every day.

North Carolina: Undocumented Grandmother Taking Sanctuary in Episcopal Church

HeadlineMay 31, 2017

In North Carolina, undocumented grandmother Juana Luz Tobar Ortega is seeking sanctuary in an Episcopal church today to avoid her deportation. Ortega has lived in the United States since 1992, when she fled violence in Guatemala. She works as a sewing machine operator at a textile factory near her home in Asheboro, North Carolina. Since 2011, she’s been reporting to annual required ICE check-ins without problems. But this spring, after President Trump took office, ICE officials instead ordered her to leave the country by today, May 31. Instead, she’s seeking sanctuary in efforts to remain in the United States with her four children and two grandchildren.

The original content of this program is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. Please attribute legal copies of this work to democracynow.org. Some of the work(s) that this program incorporates, however, may be separately licensed. For further information or additional permissions, contact us.

Non-commercial news needs your support

We rely on contributions from our viewers and listeners to do our work.
Please do your part today.
Make a donation
Top