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Petitions seek to keep mother facing deportation in US

204 views · Published 19 April 2017 · 2:23 · Indexed 21 September 2026

Channel: LOCAL 12 · 2017 · News & Politics

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CINCINNATI (WKRC) - Efforts ramped up on Monday to stop the deportation of a local mother of four, facing an overnight deportation deadline.

Ohio's senators are being asked to step in.

A prayer vigil is set to take place outside Senator Rob Portman's downtown Cincinnati office.

Earlier, a stack of petitions were delivered to his office in hopes to convince him to help stop Marabel Trujillo's deportation.

Leaders of some 55 churches from various faiths came out in support of one woman, Marabel Trujillo, and her family.

They presented a representative of Senator Portman's office with petitions, bearing over 1,000 signatures.

Over the weekend, several hundred people turned out to rally in support of Marabel Trujillo.

They demanded a stay of her deportation order.

Marabel was detained by ICE last week near her home in Fairfield. She was taken away before she could say goodbye to her family.

"It is a time of sadness and despair for them that their mother has been taken away from them, has been taken without a chance to say goodbye, was taken despite doing everything ICE was asking her… to do,” said Reverend Alan Dicken of Carthage Christian Church.

Many are outraged that Marabel Trujillo, who was in this country on a work permit, would be in line to be deported with undocumented immigrants who have committed crimes.

"Obviously this is not the kind of person that is meant to be sent away from our country,” said Pastor Damon Lynch from the New Prospect Baptist Church.

"To send Maribel back home to destroy her family is the most un-American thing we can do to take a mother away from her children,” said Iman Ismaeel Chartier of the Clifton Mosque.

With her scheduled deportation a day away, church leaders hoped a message of compassion would resonate this Easter week.

"We were strangers in a strange land so we have empathy for anyone who was a stranger, the Jewish bible repeats 36 times to love the stranger,” said Rabbi Jonathan Perlman of the Amos Project.

Legal action was taken earlier today. An appeal of Marabel Trujillo’s immigration status and a stay of her removal were filed in separate orders. No word on when those will be heard.

But a spokesperson for Senator Portman's office says quote "they are working to facilitate a solution.'

Earlier on Monday, immigration officials rejected a request for asylum, which was based on her attorney's claims that Trujillo's family has been threatened by Mexican drug cartels.

Marabel's four children range in age from 3 to 14.

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