Faith Leaders Rally, Support Woman Facing Deportation

Erika Fierro, an Indianapolis mother of two, was warned during her immigration check-in at the end of April that she may only have a few weeks to get her affairs in order, including arrangements for her children. Her husband has already been deported.

Fierro was brought to the U.S. at age 5. In March, despite no criminal history, she was arrested by immigration officials outside her home.

She was informed Thursday she had until the end of June to leave the country. 

This comes as a relief for Fierro – she was concerned she would be deported sooner, without her children. She is now focused on getting them passports.

“You know, we want our kids to just go with me and be able to leave as a family," Fierro says. "It’s not something that is impossible. It’s doable.”

Religious activist group Faith In Indiana and the Indianapolis Catholic Archbishop Charles Thompson lobbied political leaders on her behalf, in support of changes to the immigration system.

“We’re a great nation, but we’re only as great as we care for the most vulnerable and the most in need among us,” Thompson says.

Thompson says Fierro’s situation is exactly what the Catholic church must stand against.

“We must go to the margins, the peripheries of society, to be especially attentive to those that society so often overlooks,” Thompson says.

Fierro says she hopes to get the passports for her children and then reunite with her husband in Mexico.