Supporters of a woman facing deportation from Canada continued their sit-in near a downtown Montreal immigration office Wednesday.
Lucy Granados is an undocumented worker who has lived in Montreal since 2009. She was arrested in late March by Canadian Border Service Agency officers.
Scheduled to be deported two weeks ago, Granados collapsed at government offices and had to be taken to hospital.
She has remained at a Laval detention centre ever since after immigration officials determined she is a flight risk and would need to remain detained until her departure.
Granados works as a community organizer for the rights of other undocumented migrants and temporary workers. She is the sole financial supporter of her three children, who are still living in Guatemala.
Her life there is in peril, said human rights lawyer Stewart Istvanffy.
“She's threatened by the street gangs in Guatemala. She's from Zone 6 in Guatemala City and basically the street gangs in the northern triangle of Central America are extremely dangerous and she's been threatened with extortion, threatened with killing her children and she ran and came to Canada and if she goes back they will very likely kill her,” said Istvanffy.
Her lawyer will make one last motion for a stay of deportation Thursday.
If that request is denied, Granados is expected to leave Canada on Friday morning.
William van Driel of Solidarity Across Borders is one of the many fighting for a stay of deportation in her case.
“So it seems the Canadian Human Rights commission is the only recourse for Lucy but we've also heard from legal experts that in the past people like Lucy with precarious status, have been excluded and we also have fear that if the deportation does continue as it seems CBSA is pretty intent on happening, then the complaint won't continue,” he said.
