Mexican Immigrant In Columbus Marks One Year Living In Sanctuary Church

By Nick Evans, WOSU

The Columbus Mennonite Church sits a block off High Street on a Clintonville avenue lined with craftsmen houses. For the past year the church has been Edith Espinal’s home.

“It’s take very long. Very long days for one year.  I don’t how much I can wait," she said.

Espinal was born in Mexico but she moved to Columbus in 1995 with her father. She returned to her home country briefly, but returned to Columbus again in 2000. Along the way she got a job, started a family—she has three children, and applied for asylum. 

Espinal is from Michoacán, a Mexican state along the Pacific coast, and rising violence in the region helped prompt her asylum claims. But last year immigration authorities rejected her case, and the Mennonite church offered her sanctuary.  Monday, Pastor Joel Miller spoke about Espinal at a city council meeting.

“For a bit of context as of now there are right at fifty public sanctuary cases in the U.S. and many more that are not public," Miller told council members.  "Two of those cases are in Columbus. Mariam Vargas of first English Lutheran being the other, there’s potentially a third case in the works.  This puts Columbus at the leading edge of a national movement.”

The sanctuary movement began in 1980s, and the bitter fight that sprung up around churches offering safe harbor to immigrants has had a lasting influence on enforcement policies. ICE, immigration and customs enforcement, maintains a policy of avoiding what it calls sensitive locations—places of worship, schools and hospitals. 

Although that policy gives Espinal a certain level of protection, her daughter, Stephanie Gonzalez told city council it doesn’t allow for safe passage.

“My brother was taken to emergency in June because of a strong pain in his stomach, he was also recently in a car accident and was also taken to emergency.  In those two important situations my mom could not be there with him, taking care of him and telling him that everything would be fine," said Gonzalez.

Espinal saidher family used to have a normal life, and she laments the disruption in her children’s routines. She explained if her daughter spends the night, she has to be up at five or six in the morning to make it across town to school. Her son Brandow plays soccer, and with practice taking up most of his afternoons and evenings it’s hard to find time for visits.

“They don’t have the normal life they had before, but I feel so sad when they don’t come and I can do nothing," said Espinal.

Espinal has gotten visits and pledges of support from a number of politicians, but she’s frustrated they haven’t been able to make an impact on her case.

"They only, they only coming to visit me, they say we support you, we'll help you we do everything we can do for you but they don’t do nothing."

Meanwhile many lawmakers are pushing for more stringent enforcement of illegal immigration. Last year Middletown Republican Representative Candice Keller filed a measure in Ohio’s general assembly that would have cracked down on so-called sanctuary cities—which refuse or limit cooperation with federal immigration authorities. The bill failed to gain traction, but Keller and other state lawmakers were invited to the White House to discuss sanctuary policies.

In a statement, Keller wrote the Trump Administration “wants to get input from specific states dealing with irresponsible immigration policies, and is serious about partnering with local leaders to tackle the growing concerns about illegal immigration in our nation.”

Espinal’s lawyers have filed motions in court to reconsider her claims. Until the court acts, Espinal waits.