SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (WWLP) – A Springfield church is protecting an undocumented immigrant who’s been living in the city for two decades.
Mayor Domenic Sarno said on Monday that by housing this woman and her two children, the church is violating building and housing codes, and he’s notified the city’s inspection teams.
South Congregational Church announced Monday that they had invited a Peruvian woman and her two American children to take shelter there.
Springfield church opening doors to mother facing deportation
Mayor Sarno said code enforcement and public safety teams had determined last June that the church was not up to sanitary code for housing families.
Sarno expressed disappointment that the church would, “exploit this family for their own causes.�
“If there is, I hope someone will tell me what it is,� said Tom Gerstenlauer of the South Congregational Church. “Cause we’re not planning on that, we’re not looking for that. We’re basically looking to exercise our faith. The only response I have is, I guess when you’re mayor of Springfield, you can say anything you want to say�.
The Pioneer Valley Project said Gisella is a “law-abiding mother of two� who fled poverty in her native Peru in 2001. She’s been working in agriculture.
Her husband and both of her children are U.S. citizens.
“My parents were immigrants, and they came here in ’49 after the holocaust, and to me, we go by the statue of liberty, that tells us to give us our tired, our weary,� Carl Karolinksi told 22News.
“The ones that are trying to better for themselves should be allowed to stay, people that are out there selling drugs and damaging everything for everybody else, should get deported back,� said Jose Ortega.
According to the Pioneer Valley Project, Gisella has been trying to attain legal status since 2006.
