By her own account, Rosa Gutierrez Lopez was given every chance to make arrangements and leave the U.S. on her terms. The 40-year-old woman, with the nudging of deportation officers, had even bought her own plane ticket to fly back to El Salvador on Dec. 10.
But she didn’t get on the plane.
Instead, she’s now at Cedar Lane Unitarian Universalist Church in Bethesda, Maryland, where she has taken sanctuary, counting on a centuries-old tradition to protect her from any attempts to roust her and send her back.
“The reason why I took sanctuary is I love my children. I did not want to leave; I wanted to fight here,” Ms. Lopez said through a translator during a welcoming ceremony at the church this month.
