Denver man takes sanctuary in church to avoid deportation

A Denver man has taken sanctuary in a church and synagogue to avoid deportation by federal immigration authorities, but ICE officials say he is wanted fugitive who has to leave the country.

Faced with the possibility of immediate deportation on Dec. 10 at his immigration check-in, Jorge Araiza Ávila, 31, instead moved into the building that hosts Park Hill United Methodist Church and Temple Micah, advocates announced this week. Araiza Ávila’s family recently received approval to join him.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement has a policy that doesn’t allow agents to enter sensitive locations such as houses of worship or schools for enforcement unless there are exigent circumstances, other law enforcement officers lead them there or they have prior approval from a supervisor.

Araiza Ávila entered the United States with his parents illegally from Mexico more than 20 years ago when he was 9 or 10 years old. In 2007, he got married and had four children, all of whom were born in Colorado, Araiza Ávila told The Denver Post. The family has lived in the metro Denver area since then.

ICE spokeswoman Alethea Smock wrote in a statement that Araiza Ávila is a member of the Sureno 13 gang — which his attorneys vehemently deny — and that he’s considered a wanted fugitive.

“Araiza has multiple criminal convictions to include illegal weapons possession, illegal use of slugs, trespassing, among others, spanning several years,” Smock wrote.

But attorney Bryce Downer of Novo Legal Group said all of those convictions are “juvenile offenses committed by a child.” And juvenile convictions can’t be used in immigration proceedings, said attorney Aaron Elinoff of Novo Legal Group.

“He is now a father and a husband and a provider, and he has been law-abiding,” Downer said. “We call into question the accuracy of any suggestion that he is a member of a gang or ever was.”

Araiza Ávila came to the attention of immigration authorities after getting arrested in 2011 for driving without a license. Undocumented immigrants were only able to obtain drivers’ licenses in 2014 in Colorado, but Araiza Ávila said he couldn’t stop driving because he depended on it for his job and to support his family.

ICE officials said in the statement that Araiza Ávila has exhausted all his legal options and has to leave the country.

The 10th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals denied Araiza Ávila’s petition to stop his deportation last month and his attorneys are appealing that decision.

“I made the decision to enter sanctuary because it’s very important to me to fight for my case, since I’m sure that I have been a good citizen, contributing every year with my job and always reporting my taxes, doing what I should do as a taxpayer in this country,” Araiza Avila said in a statement announcing his decision.

Araiza Ávilla said everything he is doing is to keep his family together. His youngest child is 3 years old, and he said if he was deported to Mexico, he would be sent to a country he doesn’t know. He came to the United States because his parents were hoping to give him and his siblings a better life, he said.

“To me this is home,” he said at a news conference Tuesday, hosted by Sanctuary4All and the Metro Denver Sanctuary Coalition, at the church and synagogue.