Nelson and Gladys Gonzalez snuck into the United States, found faith, and became leaders at one of the country’s most influential churches. For 35 years the government could not bring itself to deport them—until it changed its mind.
Senior features writer Andy Olsen, who covers immigration for CT, spent months following a Christian family in California separated by immigration raids and went as far as Colombia to report their story, an incredible long read that appears in our latest issue.
Andy shares more about the process:
By the time Nelson and Gladys Gonzalez were deported, the news of their arrest had been covered so widely that they arrived in Colombia like minor celebrities. When I traveled there to report on their story, people everywhere had heard about the couple. "Yes, the man, he’s a bald guy!" one taxi driver told me.
During my many interviews with the Gonzalezes, it was obvious they did not want to tell a story about the cruelties they suffered in ICE detention or about what good and virtuous immigrants they had been. They, like so many, are horrified by the hardening of America’s heart toward immigrants. But that’s not what they primarily wanted to talk about. "The most important thing is what God is doing in us," Gladys said on our first phone call. "He is the first person in our story. It’s about him."
I hope what I have written honors that desire. To reconstruct their journey and verify facts, I spoke with dozens of sources and combed through hundreds of pages of legal documents and news archives. I made clear that my reporting would surface beautiful as well as unflattering details. The Gonzalezes told me they are at peace with it all. "Thanks to God," Gladys said, "I’ve already overcome it."
Paid Content
Have you been looking for a rooted, reflective practice that helps you ground each day in God’s Word? Eighth Day Prayers have crafted guides that will help you engage each liturgical season with intention. From Advent to Lent to Ordinary Time and every season in between, these guides will engage your intellect and your imagination—ideal for readers who want to think theologically while praying devotionally. Each daily entry begins with a passage of Scripture, followed by a concise reflection that opens the text to contemplation and ends with a prayer drawn directly from God’s Word.
Looking for an Advent guide in 2025? This beautiful book from Eighth Day Prayers will help you await the coming Messiah in Advent, celebrate Jesus’ arrival through Christmas, and realize the fulfillment of his promises to us during Epiphany.
Farming has been in my blood for seven generations. For seven generations I have been rooted to land and place. Trace our worn family line back as far as you…
The Bulletin and Bible teacher Jen Wilkin respond to a recent article from The New York Times linking American wedding traditions with unhealthy Christian purity culture. This conversation is edited…
A map hangs in the office of the Jamaica Baptist Union, with colored thumbtacks marking each of its 340 member churches: white for those that remained intact, yellow for those…
How do we translate the gospel for a culture without a common spiritual language? What does evangelism look like in a post-Christian world? Christians who want to share their faith…
in the magazine
The Christian story shows us that grace often comes from where we least expect. In this issue, we look at the corners of God’s kingdom and chronicle in often-overlooked people, places, and things the possibility of God’s redemptive work. We introduce the Compassion Awards, which report on seven nonprofits doing good work in their communities. We look at the spirituality underneath gambling, the ways contemporary Christian music was instrumental in one historian’s conversion, and the steady witness of what may be Wendell Berry’s last novel. All these pieces remind us that there is no person or place too small for God’s gracious and cataclysmic reversal.
