'I Am Free': El Salvadoran Man Weeps Leaving Canadian Church for First Time in Two Years

Jose Figueroa seemed unable to believe it. Standing at the door of the church that had been both a sanctuary and a prison for two years, he shook with emotion as he took his first step into the outside world.

"I am free!" he exclaimed on Wednesday, as his wife clung to him tightly, and supporters outside Walnut Grove Lutheran Church in Langley, British Columbia, cheered, "yes, freedom!" Then they began singing him Happy Birthday, because it was.

Figueroa claimed refugee status in Canada in 1997, but in 2010, the Canadian government deemed him inadmissible and ordered his deportation. His wife and Canadian-born children were allowed to stay, but Figueroa, who was affiliated with the El Salvadoran Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN), sought sanctuary at the church. Then, on Monday, he learned that Canada's Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship John McCallum found "sufficient humanitarian and compassionate considerations" in his case to warrant an exemption.

"As you can imagine, after two or more years being locked up in the church, me and my family and anybody who is supporting us, there is so much joy," Figueroa told the CBC upon learning of the government's decision.

The FMLN was created in 1980 as a paramilitary arm of a group of Cuban-backed political dissidents who fought government troops backed by the US. The guerrillas began to disarm in 1992, following the UN-brokered peace accord and shortly afterwards became an official political party. It has since become one of the most powerful political forces in El Salvador and ascended to power for the first time in 2009, a position it still holds.

Figueroa says his battle isn't over yet.

"This issue has to be resolved. I haven't been granted citizenship. We should have become citizens in 2004," he said upon his release.

"There is no proof that I did anything wrong … there is no proof that the FMLN is a terrorist organization. It is not. It hasn't been. So no people has to be suffering in this situation."

He vowed to visit Rodney Watson, an American who deserted the US army and fled to Canada, where he has been living in Vancouver's First United Church for over six years. "He has suffered more than us," he said.