Undocumented immigrant who took sanctuary in New Haven church granted stay of deportation

Nury Chavarria (center) of Norwalk hugs her daughter, Lindsay Chavarria (left) and son, Elvin Martinez, in a room where she is staying with another daughter, Hayley, 9, at Iglesia de Dios Pentecostal in the Fair Haven section of New Haven during a visit on Saturday. Arnold Gold / Hearst Connecticut Media

–By Mary O’Leary, New Haven Register —

NEW HAVEN >> Nury Chavarria, who was on the verge of being deported back to Guatemala last week, has now been granted an emergency stay.

It has been an emotional roller coaster for the 43-year-old undocumented immigrant, who for years had gotten multiple stays based on humanitarian grounds, but was told late last month to buy a one-way ticket to a country she has not seen in 24 years.

Student lawyers at the Worker and Immigrant Rights Advocacy Clinic at the Yale Law School, led by supervisory attorney Marisol Orihuela, filed a motion for a stay before Immigration Judge Philip Verrillo Wednesday and another to reopen Chavarria’s case.

Within an hour, Verillo found the argument for a stay “so compelling” that he granted it, Orihuela said, and Chavarria’s story took another turn.