DC-area church offers sanctuary to mother of 3 from El Salvador

Rosa Gutierrez Lopez fled violence in her home country of El Salvador to come to the United States 13 years ago – but last December, she chose to take refuge inside a Maryland church to avoid deportation.

Gutierrez Lopez, a mother of three, now faces an uncertain future along with her three children -- all U.S.-born citizens -- as she awaits a decision in her case that’s pending before the appellate immigration board.

As of earlier this month, she’s one of an estimated several dozen other individuals who have taken sanctuary inside churches across the country, according to Church World Services.

For a church to become a physical sanctuary takes “a number of steps,” said Abhi Janamanchi, the reverend at Cedar Lane Unitarian Universalist Church where Gutierrez Lopez is staying.

To be a physical sanctuary is also assuming a certain risk, Janamanchi said, but in May 2017 the Bethesda congregation voted on the matter. So, when Gutierrez Lopez reached out 7 months ago, the church was prepared.

“Being engaged in sanctuary work has actually helped us lean into that anxiety and learn more to be present with it, and to recognize that … it guides us both to a deeper place in terms of how our faith guides us, but also to live out what our values are,” he said.

Cedar Lane Unitarian Universalist Church is part of a broader network of religious communities in the Washington, D.C. area that work with immigrants like Gutierrez Lopez.

“We're one of the few that have committed to be a physical sanctuary, but these religious communities all come together to be working on other aspects that are also part of sanctuary,” he said.

Gutierrez Lopez’s lawyer, Jasmin Tohidi, explained that after arriving in the United States, Gutierrez Lopez turned herself over to immigration.

“At that time, they gave her a piece of paper in English and released her,” Tohidi said.