Felipe's Miracle

Felipe and his wife, Carla (not their real names) came to this country four years ago from Guatemala on a legal visa, says Rev. Jeff Meyer, pastor of Crosswinds Christian Reformed Church in Holland, Mich. of which Felipe and his wife are members.

When the visa expired, they stayed in the U.S. partly because their son, a U.S.-born citizen, has hemophilia, a rare blood disease requiring life-sustaining treatments, says Meyer.

“They want the best for their son, and they knew that they were able to get quality care here in West Michigan that is not available in Guatemala,” says their pastor.

About six weeks ago, things did not look good for Felipe, who was confronted by U.S. Immigration and Custom Enforcement officials when he out doing an errand. They asked for his visa.

When he was unable to produce it, Felipe was detained in preparation for deportation to Guatemala.

Felipe's wife contacted the church, fearing what would happen if her husband, the family's main wage-earner, was deported.

“We are a multi-ethnic congregation,” says Meyer. “We have had to deal with immigration issues before, but none have so far turned out in the miraculous way that this one has. This story has a happy ending.”

The church started by contacting an attorney for help, he says.

The attorney advised them not to pursue the case through the normal court process, since courts are experiencing a massive backlog of cases and they rarely rule in favor of an undocumented worker.

“We were told that the best means was to go through something called ‘prosecutorial discretion’,” says Meyer.

Prosecutorial discretion is a procedure the Obama administration has put into place allowing immigration and customs officials to slow or stop deportations in specific instances.

“Even with this, we were told that the chances were one in 1,000 that he would be able to stay in this country," says Meyer.

With the congregation’s help, Felipe secured an attorney who, based on the medical needs of his son, presented an argument for prosecutorial discretion, seeking his release. 

"We all did our part and prayed, and the outcome was favorable," says Meyer.

Felipe was released, reunited with his family, and, in fact, the attorney went on and made a request for a new work permit, which was quickly granted to Felipe.

“God was clearly at work,” says Meyer.

But, he says, this doesn’t mean Felipe and his wife are in the clear.

“Under our current immigration laws, this is one among hundreds of thousands of immigrant families that don’t have any legal way to be in the U.S.,” he says. 

“Felipe and his wife continue to live in fear of deportation, but for now their family is together, Felipe can be employed legally, and his son gets the treatments he needs to be a healthy, active boy.” 

Viviana Cornejo, a race relations advocate for the CRC’s Office of Race Relations, encourages churches take the time to answer — as did Crosswinds CRC — the call of Jesus to reach out to the strangers and aliens living in their neighborhoods and communities.

“We’re asked to give a glass of water for a family to be together,” she says. “For children to be with their parents. For a husband to be with his wife. We’re paying more attention to the loud message of the world instead listening to Jesus’ words.”