Chicas took shelter in June 2017 inside the School for Conversion, a small house on the grounds of a Baptist church in Durham, North Carolina. At the time, he faced a deportation order after years of checking in at ICE.
Chicas says he never expected to spend so much time in the sanctuary.
“I had no idea what I was getting into,” he told CNN this week in a telephone interview while packing and preparing to leave. “I thought it would be three or four months.”
But months have turned into years.
His family lives near Raleigh and visited him whenever he could. And from his limits on the grounds of the São João Baptist Missionary Church, Chicas – himself a pastor – continued to minister to his flock through live videos on Facebook and occasional personal meetings.
In his sermons, he always preached about the power of redemption. The use of drugs and alcohol put him on a dangerous path, he says – that led to a conviction for DUI and domestic violence and, eventually, an order for deportation. Since 2002, Chicas says he has changed.
And he said this week that he is grateful that the Biden government’s policies are giving him another chance. He is looking forward to spending more time with his family – visiting parks and beaches and going out for ice cream.
“It will be a beautiful change,” he said.
In 2018, about 50 people lived in shrines within churches across the country, according to the Church World Service. Organization officials did not immediately respond to a CNN query for updated data.
Chicas said that he spent many days in the sanctuary feeling forgotten, isolated and full of anguish about the future.
But there were also brighter moments.
“I met so many people … I realized that there are hundreds and hundreds of Americans who have a good heart and love immigrants,” he said. “I saw it with my own eyes.”
CNN’s Priscilla Alvarez contributed to this report.