After living in sanctuary in Langley’s Walnut Grove Lutheran Church for more than two years to avoid arrest and deportation by the CBSA, Jose Figueroa learned on Monday that he has been granted a rare exemption to remain in Canada.

John McCallum, the new Liberal Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship, granted Figueroa an exemption based on “humanitarian and compassionate considerations”, according to a December 21 letter sent to him by Citizenship and Immigration Canada’s Vancouver office.

Figueroa, whose application for permanent residency on humanitarian and compassionate grounds was first approved in principle on July 12, 2004, was surprised in May of 2010 when an Immigration and Refugee board adjudicator ruled that he must return to his native country of El Salvador because of his association with the guerrilla group Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN).

The organization, which has never been listed on Ottawa’s list of terrorist groups, was thought by the CBSA to have engaged in terrorist activity in the 1980s when it attempted to overthrow a bloody military dictatorship. The FMLN is currently the democratically elected government in El Salvador.

“When I received the phone call about this latest decision, I thought we were going to be talking about the cancellation of the arrest warrant,” said Figueroa in a telephone interview with the Straight.

“This decision has been made three times. First in 2004 when I was approved in principle; then a ministers delegate decided that I should be deported, and now I’ve been approved in principle again," he said. 

Figueroa is happy to have been granted an approval in principle, but he said that he and his wife should be granted citizenship. The couple has lived in Canada for 18 years and have three Canadian-born children.

Now that he’s free to step out of the church, Figueroa said he has plans to become a lawyer. “At this point I have represented myself in six judicial reviews, and have moved them forward myself. I think that at this point I have a better understanding of many things—not just immigration—and I see how that can be helpful.”

Figueroa said his campaign to support immigrants in similar situations will continue. “In the immediate future, after I step out, I’ll be visiting Rodney Watson,” said Figueroa. Watson is a U.S. war resister who has been in sanctuary at East Vancouver’s First United Church for more than six years. 

“I want to pay him a visit so that he has some hope, because I think that a solution to his case will also be granted if Canadians show him the same compassion that they are showing in my case,” said Figueroa. “We need to show our solidarity with him."