Man living inside a church to avoid deportation

He's been living in the U.S. for 26 years — but inside his church for the last 400 days. Why? Because if he steps outside he risks being deported.

Transcript

00:00You're pretty much in jail.

00:02It's a place that you cannot live 24 hours around the clock.

00:05Seeing your kids come and live a life is just heartbreaking,

00:10especially when you have a little one that cries,

00:13not wanting to go home without his dad.

00:31My name is Nelson Pinos.

00:33I'm from Ecuador, and I've been living in the United States

00:36for the last 26 years.

00:38The government, you know, they were the ones that told me,

00:40you know, you have to tell this state to leave the country.

00:43I was supposed to be at the airport on November the 30th of 2017.

00:48You know, I looked for help around the community,

00:52and I talked to some community leaders and organizers,

00:58and they were the ones that told me about this possibility

01:01of getting into sanctuary till the lawyers fight the case.

01:16Hello. Come in.

01:19This is where I spend most of the time.

01:21This is one of the memories from the family,

01:25you know, a few years ago.

01:42It worries me sometimes because I don't know where this is going to end.

01:45If I get to leave, they might not be waiting for me out in the corner,

01:49but who knows if I get in a car and I get stopped by police.

01:55I'm going to let it shine, let it shine, let it shine, let it shine.

02:17It would be a devastating thing, especially for my kids.

02:21I could probably survive back home, but I have three underage kids,

02:25you know, and especially Brandon is only six years old,

02:29so I worry about them, you know.

02:31How are they going to survive?

02:33I'm scared that they're going to lose the place to live.

02:37They're not going to finish school, probably.

02:39That's something that I just can't take it.

02:52I miss teaching my son how to ride a bike,

02:55and I should be teaching him how to ride a bike on a park,

02:59not trying to teach him inside the church basement.

03:02We're not bad people.

03:05We're people that came here just looking for a better life

03:08and trying to do the best for our kids.

03:10We're not criminals, like the government said.