In 2015, Carmela Apolonio Hernandez fled Mexico with her four children and illegally immigrated to the United States after organized drug criminals killed her brother and two nephews. Facing a deportation order in 2016, the Hernandez family has since been living in sanctuary to avoid deportation back to their home country. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement maintains that it discourages its enforcement of immigration laws in “sensitive locations,” such as places of worship. The family first moved into the Church of the Advocate in North Philadelphia in October, 2017, and recently moved into the Germantown Mennonite Church on Dec. 9, 2018. The family tidies up their main sleeping quarters on Jan. 27, 2019. | The Temple News
Carmela Apolonio Hernandez folds laundry at the Germantown Mennonite Church in Philadelphia on Jan. 27, 2019. | The Temple News
The Hernandez Family poses for a family portrait at the Germantown Mennonite Church on Jan. 27, 2019. | The Temple News
Stuffed animals cover the bed of Keyri Hernandez, 14, the older of the two sisters, at the Germantown Mennonite Church on Jan. 27, 2019. | The Temple News
Art covers the door to the Hernandez family’s main sleeping quarters at the Germantown Mennonite Church on Jan. 27, 2019. | The Temple News
Carmela Apolonio Hernandez motions toward one of her 16 plants at the Germantown Mennonite Church on Jan. 27, 2019. | The Temple News
Carmela Apolonio Hernandez cuts a lemon picked from her lemon tree in the kitchen of her family’s living quarters on Jan. 27, 2019. | The Temple News
Carmela Apolonio Hernandez stares warmly at her youngest daughter, Yoselin Hernandez, 12, in the family’s living room at the Germantown Mennonite Church on Jan. 27, 2019. | The Temple News
The Hernandez family watches a spanish telenovela in their living room at the Germantown Mennonite Church on Jan. 27, 2019. | The Temple News
Edwin Hernandez, 10 (left) and Fidel Hernandez, 16 (right) relax in the family’s living room at the Germantown Mennonite Church on Jan. 27, 2019. | The Temple News