That is exactly what the immigrant in this story is seeking — and for the time being, a Methodist church is willing to provide it:

A Mexican woman says she is “picking up the torch” from another illegal resident who became a symbol for immigration reform when she took shelter in a Chicago church for a year before being deported.

Flor Crisostomo, 28, who paid a smuggler to drive her across the U.S. border in 2000, spurned a deportation order Monday and moved into Adalberto United Methodist Church.

Crisostomo hopes her actions send a message similar to Elvira Arellano, who became a beacon of hope for millions of illegal immigrants and a lightning rod for those who saw her brazen refusal to leave the U.S. as proof of lax enforcement.

Arellano lived in an apartment on the church’s upper floor for a year before leaving in August to visit Los Angeles, where immigration authorities arrested her and, within hours, deported her to Mexico.

Adalberto’s pastor said no one pressured Crisostomo to take sanctuary at the church, which is in a predominantly Hispanic neighborhood.

“It’s unfortunate we have to do this. This church has other priorities, like helping the poor in this neighborhood,” the Rev. Walter Coleman said. “But God didn’t give us a choice. When God says do this, we say, ‘Yes, sir!'”

Coleman complained that the push for immigration reform has stalled, saying even sympathetic politicians have put the sensitive issue on the back burner.

“So what are we supposed to do?” he said. “Who’s moving this movement forward? It’s not moving forward.”

Crisostomo, who spoke through a translator, said she left Iguala Guerrero, Mexico, after she was unable to find a job that would allow her to buy enough food for her two boys and one girl, ages 9 to 14.

In July 2000 she paid a smuggler to take her across the border and spent three days lost in desert-like conditions before making it to Los Angeles, she said. A month later she arrived in Chicago, where she worked 10 hours a day, six days a week in an IFCO Systems site that made packing materials.

By last year, she earned about $360 a week, sending $300 to her children for food, clothes and school books, she said. To keep her own costs down, she lived with four other women in a two-bedroom Chicago apartment.

“My children’s lives improve a lot as a result,” she said. “It wasn’t luxury. But it meant they could survive.”

There’s more on her situation up at the AP link.

Let’s keep her and her family and their church in our prayers. This can’t be easy for any of them.