Salt Lake church providing sanctuary to mother and kids joins legal battle against ICE

Vicky Chavez looks around after a press conference at the First Unitarian Church in Salt Lake City on Monday, July 9, 2018. A Salt Lake church where Chavez and her young daughters have been taking sanctuary for three years now has joined a lawsuit alleging Chavez and others across the country are facing steep fines from immigration officials because they spoke out about their cases. | Kristin Murphy, Deseret News

Vicky Chavez is suing along with three other women in Ohio, Texas and Virginia

SALT LAKE CITY — A Salt Lake church where a mother and her young daughters have been taking sanctuary for three years now has joined a lawsuit alleging that Vicky Chavez and others across the country are facing steep fines from immigration officials because they spoke out about their cases.

First Unitarian Church of Salt Lake City has now signed on as a plaintiff in the case brought by Chavez, 33, and three other women from Ohio, Texas and Virginia who’ve also sought asylum and taken refuge from deportation in churches. They’re suing U.S. immigration officials in federal court in Washington, D.C.

First Unitarian is working with the Philadelphia-based Free Migration Project and Austin Sanctuary Network in advocating for the women. The groups say the roughly $60,000 fines each faces are excessive and unconstitutional.

They had hoped President Joe Biden’s administration would walk back the civil penalties soon after he took office in January, but that hasn’t happened.

Chavez fled Honduras, where she said she feared for her family’s safety because of an abusive boyfriend, and sought asylum in the United States in 2014. She wiped away tears at times during a news conference Wednesday, saying she would continue to speak up so that her daughters, ages 3 and 9, can know a world outside the church’s walls.

“I will continue to fight for them in order to show the world the immigration system in the U.S. is unjust,” she said. “We will continue to raise our voices to fight for our rights.”

The lawsuit names the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement as defendants. The agencies haven’t responded yet in court filings.

This story will be updated.

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