Mexican family fearful of deportation spends months in sanctuary in Sherbrooke, Que., church

Georgina Flores goes up to the kitchen every night to prepare one of her family's favourite meals.

"Je prépare tacos mexicanos, posoles, tamales, chile rellenos," Flores begins in French, switching between her recently acquired language and her native Spanish as she goes through the list of classic Mexican dishes.

While she takes comfort in the daily routine that brings her family some semblance of normalcy, the kitchen isn't hers. It's the one normally used for community events at Plymouth Trinity United Church in Sherbrooke, Que.

The church is now the closest thing to a home that Flores's family has had since they moved in on Nov. 8, 2021, the date the Canadian Border Services Agency had set for the family's deportation to their native Mexico.

They learned through a letter in October that their application for a pre-removal risk assessment had been denied. That step is one asylum seekers can request if they are ineligible for refugee status but believe they are at risk of torture, persecution or death if they are deported.

Flores owned a small restaurant near the university in Torreón, in the Mexican state of Cohuila, until 2018.

That's when Flores said a drug cartel demanded she start selling drugs. When she refused, Flores said they burned down the business and later set fire to her daughter's home, with the woman and Flores's granddaughter trapped inside.

The family fled, arriving in Canada in 2018. A friend suggested they settle in Sherbrooke, in Quebec's Eastern Townships, as it is quieter and more peaceful than Montreal, Flores explained.

She and her husband, Manuel Rodriguez, eventually got jobs working on a production line at a local factory, working from 4 p.m. to 2 a.m.

Their son, Manolo, now 18, went to high school while working at a local doughnut shop.

Being away from his friends for the past four months has been the most difficult part of the ordeal, said Manolo's father.

The family is now waiting to see if their application for a temporary residency permit, filed in December 2021, will be granted.

"This is just not a life," Rodriguez said, in a church sitting room. "We wake up and don't feel like talking anymore. My son is really disillusioned because we haven't received any news."

"But we try to be strong to show our son we're still standing."