Citizenship Immigration Canada and Jose Figueroa

Walnut Grove Lutheran Church: Immigration Minister John McCallum has granted the man an exemption to remain in Canada on humanitarian and compassionate grounds.A letter from Citizenship and Immigration Canada sent to Figueroa said his permanent residence application can now be processed, according to Vancouver Observer. It comes 18 years after he arrived."I don't know how I'm going to do it, to get out and finally breathe some freedom — liberation," Figueroa said Tuesday in a telephone interview from Walnut Grove Lutheran Church. Jose Figueroa will step through the doors of the Langley, B.C., church on his 49th birthday on Wednesday to reunite with his wife and three children two years after taking refuge. He received notification on Monday that the Canadian Border Services Agency had cancelled an arrest warrant and a deportation order that prompted him to seek sanctuary in October 2013. He mounted a series of legal challenges until a May 2010 finding that he was inadmissible to Canada. Figueroa has been living B.C. Lower Mainland since 1997, working and raising his family including a son who has autism. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.