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In the NoCo
In The NoCo

“If I Could Stay” tells two mothers’ stories from inside a broken immigration system

By In The NoCo,
Erin O'Toole, Ariel Lavery
Published April 2, 2024 at 5:45 AM MDT
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"There's a huge crisis with immigration because the politicians aren't doing their job. The system really pushes you to do things you shouldn't," says Ingrid Encalada Latorre, an immigrant mother who took sanctuary in a Boulder church in 2017 to avoid deportation and separation from her young children. Her story is documented in the new film "If I Could Stay," featured at this week's ACT Human Rights Film Festival.
Courtesy of ACT Human Rights Film Fest
"There's a huge crisis with immigration because the politicians aren't doing their job. The system really pushes you to do things you shouldn't," says Ingrid Encalada Latorre, an immigrant mother who took sanctuary in a Boulder church in 2017 to avoid deportation and separation from her young children. Her story is documented in the new film "If I Could Stay," featured at this week's ACT Human Rights Film Festival.

Most people would agree that the immigration system in the United States is broken… but how it's broken – and how to fix it – are the real debate. As this debate persists, the stories of people caught in a messy immigration web continue to rise.

The documentary film If I Could Stay tells the story of two such people, and , two undocumented mothers living in Colorado. When they faced deportation and being separated from their young children, they chose to take refuge in churches in Denver and Boulder.

Ahead of the film's Colorado premiere at CSU's in Fort Collins, In The NoCo's Erin O'Toole sat down with one of those two mothers who sought sanctuary in 2017, Ingrid Latorre, and , one of the film's co-directors.

screens during the festival's , Wednesday, April 3 at Colorado State University's Lory Student Center theater.

KUNC Digital Producer Natalie Skowlund provided Spanish-language translation for this episode.

Tags
In The NoCo ImmigrationWomen's RightsImmigrantsColorado State University (CSU)Northern Colorado
In The NoCo
KUNC's In The NoCo is a daily slice of stories, news, people and issues. It's a window to the communities along the Colorado Rocky Mountains. The show brings context and insight to the stories of the day, often elevating unheard voices in the process. And because life in Northern Colorado is a balance of work and play, we celebrate the lighter side of things here, too.
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Erin O'Toole
As the host of KUNC’s new program and podcast In the NoCo, I work closely with our producers and reporters to bring context and diverse perspectives to the important issues of the day. Northern Colorado is such a diverse and growing region, brimming with history, culture, music, education, civic engagement, and amazing outdoor recreation. I love finding the stories and voices that reflect what makes NoCo such an extraordinary place to live.
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Ariel Lavery
Ariel Lavery grew up in Louisville, Colorado and has returned to the Front Range after spending over 25 years moving around the country. She co-created the podcast Middle of Everywhere for WKMS, Murray State University’s NPR member station, and won Public Media Journalism awards in every season she produced for Middle of Everywhere. Her most recent series project is "The Burn Scar", published with The Modern West podcast. In it, she chronicles two years of her family’s financial and emotional struggle following the loss of her childhood home in the Marshall Fire.
See stories by Ariel Lavery