Hilda Ramirez in 2019 (Photo by Jana Birchum)
Every knock on the door and every siren heard outside was a potential trigger of "horror" for undocumented immigrants living in sanctuary at Austin's
St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church and
First Unitarian Universalist Church. Even in refuge,
Alirio Gamez,
Ivan, were constantly "haunted" by the threat of deportation by
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, say those close to them. After years of fighting for their freedom, Ramirez and Gamez – who spent most of their time battling deportation under the zealously anti-immigrant Trump administration – were recently granted stays of removal for the next year, a major victory for the local sanctuary movement.