Salt Lake City, Utah looks to be a beautiful place, at least from what can be seen from the windows of a church. That is all that Vicky Chavez can see of it too since she is confined to the church as a sanctuary against being deported by ICE agents. She and her two girls have been living at the church for years now with no end in sight, completely dependent on the congregation for their shelter, food and protection.
This is a documentary, not a film. So there are no easy answers or resolutions to the heartrending situation facing immigrants across America who are granted shelter from deportation through the mercy of various churches and synagogues. The concept of “sanctuary” is centuries old and is basically protection provided by a religious institution from legal action.
In the case of Vicky Chavez and her daughters, the choice was to accept the offer of making their local church their home or to be separated through her imminent return to Honduras. The fact that her whole family lives in the U.S. and her youngest daughter is an American citizen did nothing to change the federal government’s looming threat of parting her from her daughters, perhaps forever.
This is not an unusual case as we learn from the other immigrants that Vicky talks to weekly via video chats. They share how terrified they are of ICE and of COVID-19, which one woman calls their other “predator.” They also comfort each other, and it is impossible not to be moved by how grateful they are for the help they have received from their benefactors.
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Vicky’s daughters innocently wait for a time when they can have a pet and a home of their own. Their mother sheds tears of frustration and fear when she is not with them because as grateful as she is, she acknowledges that the church can feel like a “prison.” She tells her friends on the phone that they must “fight on.”
In the meantime, she knits and takes care of her daughters and visits with members of the church when she is not conducting her weekly phone meetings. It is a monotonous life, but it is a life that is shared with her daughters and we can see how fiercely devoted to them she is.
No mother should be in the position that she or her fellow immigrants are in, but here they are, for now. Vicky says to the camera that when her day of freedom finally comes the church bell will – and she asks what is the word? It’s ring; the church bell will ring. After seeing “Shelter in Place” you will want to be in Salt Lake City when it does.
