KALAMAZOO, MI (WKZO AM/FM) — The First Congregational Church of Kalamazoo has joined a growing number of congregations that are taking on immigrants who are on the verge of being deported to protect them from ICE agents, to in effect, give them sanctuary.
62-year-old Saheeda Nadeem lost her last appeal on Friday and was due to be deported Monday,March 12.
Instead the church congregation agreed to let her live on the church property. There is apparently a policy in the Immigration and Customs Enforcement service that they don’t enter churches and some other institutions to take undocumented aliens into custody.
Her son, Samad is protected under DACA. He says his mother has worked for the last several years with developmentally disabled children as a full-time caregiver, at Community Living Options and with Bethany Christian Services, and helped many others in the community.
He says she left Pakistan 40-year-ago and has no ties there. Kalamazoo is their home, it’s the only home he has ever known and they want to stay.
Pastor Nathan Dannison says she will be using an apartment in the church, and from the assessment of her lawyer, Bradley Maze, it could be a long time before she will be free to resume her life.
He says she continues to be a law-abiding tax-paying citizen, a productive and valued member of the community and he can find no justification for their sudden determination that she has to go. He called it “ inhumane, bad policy which is detrimental to the community”.
They are working on a gofundme page and building a support network.
Pastor Dannison says he is working with other churches in the area, and may request they also take on immigrants who have no other options, when they come forward.
