The day was blazing hot and inside a tractor trailer, the air was getting thinner and the truck's walls seemed to be caving in. Inside, nearly 150 people seeking to cross the Mexican-American border lay, one next to another.

Nineteen-year-old Nury Chavarria felt she needed more air but not nearly as much as the two women beside her who kept fading in and out of consciousness.

"We couldn't breathe," Chavarria said. "A group of men made holes at the top of the trailer. They would lift the women up to the holes to breathe."

That was in 1993, 24 years before Chavarria, an undocumented mother of four from Norwalk facing deportation, would make national headlines for seeking sanctuary in a New Haven church so she could remain in the country she struggled and faced peril to enter.

Chavarria, 43, who was granted an emergency stay Wednesday evening, recalled the treacherous journey she made during an interview Wednesday afternoon inside the church where she had sought refuge for nearly a week.

Chavarria said she made the journey from Guatemala after being denied asylum. She was surrounded by complete strangers. Her first attempt, crossing the Rio Grande in a floating device with dozens of others, was unsuccessful, Chavarria said.

"I remember it took something like 22 days to get here," Chavarria said. The journey included daylong trips of walking, crossing water and deserts. But a dream of a better life encouraged Chavarria to continue.

"No one knows what the journey entails," Chavarria said. "I think that if one knew the dangers you put yourself in ahead of time, I wouldn't have done it."

Chavarria believes that was the only choice she had back then. As the oldest of six children, she said she had a responsibility to financially support her five siblings and her mother living in an impoverished community in Guatemala. The money they had was barely enough to put food on the table, Chavarria said.

Once in the United States, Chavarria worked as a housekeeper and gave birth to and raised four children, learning throughout the years how to care for her son with cerebral palsy.

Starting in 2011, Chavarria would check in annually with Immigration and Customs Enforcement and each year her requests to stay were granted, allowing her to continue to raise her children until tighter immigration enforcement policies were enacted.

On June 21, Chavarria went to ICE officials to renew her stay, a renewal she has been granted for the last six years. Instead, she was ordered to voluntarily leave the country by July 20.

"I don't know how I was expected to pack up 24 years of my life in one month," she said.

Chavarria had applied for asylum in 1993 and had been denied. In 1998, five years after coming to Connecticut and just months after giving birth to her second child, she was issued a deportation order. Another one came in 1999 and yet another in 2009.

"[In June] the ICE agent said, 'You remember that deportation order in 1999 that you didn't follow?' and that was it," Chavarria said.

So Chavarria bought a one-way ticket back to Guatemala as she was ordered. She packed her bags and said her goodbyes but at the last minute, she detoured and took up an offer of sanctuary from pastors Hector and Dianette Otero at Iglesia de Dios Pentecostal in New Haven. ICE policy dictates immigration agents avoid enforcement activities at places like schools, churches and hospitals.

Politicians, including Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, Sens. Chris Murphy and Richard Blumenthal, Rep. Rosa DeLauro and others, visited Chavarria to show their support.

Chavarria said she felt safe at the church and slept comfortably but missed her house and her children who visited her but did not stay because she had never been separated from them. An ankle bracelet monitored her every move and prevented Chavarria from leaving the church grounds.

The church community showed their support for Chavarria by stocking a refrigerator full of food and cooking meals, including a homemade turkey and "the biggest pot of rice."

There was an outpouring of gestures similar to that one, Chavarria said smiling. She said she is building more relationships with the church community every day.

In the end, the dangerous journey she took two decades ago was worth it, Chavarria said, and she plans to continue fighting and pursuing her dreams of a better life for herself and her children and for other immigrants who are living in similar circumstances.

"It hasn't been easy," Chavarria said. "But I've been able to make it through. In my country that would've been impossible."

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Journey To Freedom Continues For Mother Facing Deportation - Hartford Courant