Ingrid Encalada Latorre, who has been living in sanctuary in churches in Colorado since last year, has now moved to a Boulder church.
The 33 year old mother, and her 2-year-old son, left Foothills Unitarian Church in Fort Collins on Saturday and moved to the Unitarian Universalist Church in Boulder to be nearer to friends and family. Speaking to reporters today, LaTorre says being in sanctuary is hardest on her son. “It’s really hard on my older son, my 9 year old. I can’t take him anywhere, I can’t take him to the movies, I can’t even take him to school and he does ask, Mom, why do we have to live this kind of life?”
LaTorre came to the United States when she was 17, but was issued a deportation order following a 2010 felony conviction for possessing falsified or stolen identification papers. She has been fighting to stay in the US after her appeal to Governor Hickenlooper for a pardon for that conviction failed.
She took shelter at a Denver church in 2016 then moved to a Fort Collins church hours before her scheduled deportation flight in October. There are 5 people currently in sanctuary in churches around the state. No other state has as many people living in a church or temple to avoid deportation as Colorado. One in every six people in sanctuary in the United States is in the state.
