Woman who lived at Chicago church for years goes home — for 3 days — then returns after judge bars enforcement of Biden deportation moratorium

CHICAGO — After almost four years of living in a Humboldt Park church to avoid deportation, Francisca Lino finally returned to her Romeoville home Saturday after President Joe Biden’s 100-day moratorium on deportations went into effect Friday.

But Lino’s move home was short-lived. A federal judge barred the U.S. government from enforcing a 100-day deportation moratorium on Tuesday. U.S. District Judge Drew Tipton said the Biden administration failed “to provide any concrete, reasonable justification for a 100-day pause on deportations,” according to The Associated Press.

“I am disillusioned and sad because I was already in my house with my children, but unfortunately because of the racism in some people’s hearts I had to come back here,” Lino said Wednesday in Spanish. “My kids deserve their mom in the house. I’m not a criminal. I didn’t do anything wrong. I just want to find a better life for my family.”

Lino, who is a mother of six children, crossed the U.S.-Mexico border in 1999 but was caught, fingerprinted and released after a few hours. She later successfully crossed and settled in Bolingbrook with her husband, Diego Lino.

Lino took sanctuary in an apartment above the same Chicago church that protected immigration activist Elvira Arellano — Adalberto United Methodist Church — after she defied a court order in August 2017 mandating that she leave the country.

Lino was arrested in 2005 during an interview to obtain her green card because her application did not disclose that she had previously been arrested at the border, her attorney Christopher Bergin previously said. He said Lino was the victim of notary fraud and that she had been honest with immigration officials from the start.

After she was handed a deportation notice in March 2017 during a scheduled Immigration and Customs Enforcement check-in, she asked her husband to drive her to the Humboldt Park church, where she was a member.

At a news conference outside the church Wednesday night, Lino spoke about her visit home and how she got a call from her pastor telling her she would have to go back to the church. She returned Tuesday afternoon.

“The only thing I did was cry. I’m so disillusioned. My children were excited, and the look on their face when I had to go back really hurt,” she said.

Lino added she was feeding her grandson and watching the news when she heard about the injunction. She said she stood up in shock.

“I hoped it wouldn’t apply to me,” she said, holding onto her red scarf.

According to Bergin, the undermining of Biden’s moratorium is leaving people like Lino in a holding pattern.

“If (the judge) continues on and stops the moratorium from going into effect then the case will go to the board of appeals and possibly the Supreme Court. It is like we are in a roller coaster,” he said. “We have to wait to see what happens in Texas.”