MAPLEWOOD, Mo. — After three years in a Maplewood church to avoid immediate deportation, Alex Garcia returned home to his wife and children Wednesday without fear of imminent separation while he petitions for permanent legal status.
Garcia, a Honduran immigrant and father of five who has lived in the U.S. for 17 years, left Christ Church United Church of Christ where he has sought refuge from federal officials looking to enforce a deportation order stemming from his first entry into the U.S. in 2000.
His departure, Garcia and his advocates said, follows orders from President Joe Biden to Immigration and Customs Enforcement that deprioritized deportation for undocumented migrants without violent criminal records. That reversed federal policy under President Donald Trump, who sought to deport anyone in the country illegally, including migrants like Garcia who had been granted temporary stays in the U.S. because they were working people with no criminal records married to U.S. citizens.
