'All Our Opportunity Was Taken Away': Sanctuary Family Slowly Restarts Life

After more than two years living in churches to avoid deportation to Jamaica, Clive and Oneita Thompson noticed some basic life skills had deteriorated.

The first time Oneita went to take out money from an ATM, she said, "'Wait a minute, what do you do again?' ... I truly did not remember how to use my card."

Sometimes, when Oneita wakes up in the morning, she needs to remind herself the family is free.

"I always have to tell myself that it's real," Oneita said last week, about five months after the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) sent a letter to the couple, saying that it would remove the last hurdle for them to get green cards.

Across the United States, dozens of undocumented immigrants took sanctuary in churches during former President Donald Trump's administration, because ICE has guidance to avoid arrests in these and other "sensitive locations." The practice of taking sanctuary occurred under the Obama administration as well, but with fewer people protected from deportation under Trump, the numbers surged.