GREENSBORO, N.C. — A federal immigration judge has granted permanent residency for one of the first undocumented immigrants that took refuge in a North Carolina church to avoid deportation, the woman’s attorney told the Greensboro News & Record.
“The best day of my life,” Minerva Cisneros Garcia posted to her Facebook page with a picture of her surrounded by her lawyer and others, “thanks to all these amazing women!”
Photos posted on social media show Garcia celebrating outside the U.S. courthouse in Charlotte with her attorney Helen Parsonage of Winston-Salem and Julie Peeples, the pastor at Congregational United Church of Christ, where she sought sanctuary in 2017.
Garcia of Winston-Salem had taken refuge at Congregational UCC as a last resort against deportation for being in the country illegally. Other churches supported her but were unable to meet building codes to house the family.
Read more in the News & Record.
