BEDFORD, Mass. – For over three years, Maria Macario has been too afraid to leave the white steepled First Parish church just outside Boston.
The 55-year-old Guatemala native moved in to avoid deportation, living in a converted Sunday school classroom with a kitchenette.
Her isolation has only been compounded by the coronavirus pandemic. Gone are the regular church gatherings and volunteers stationed around the clock in case immigration officials come.
To keep her spirits up, singers gather outside to serenade her. She hopes things change with Joe Biden in the White House. He set out to pause most deportations for 100 days and pitched a path to citizenship for an estimated 11 million people without legal status — an ambitious and dramatic