Amid new guidelines, Va. woman’s deportation case comes down to the last minute

By Eli Saslow, Published: September 25

She had spent her final week praying for one outcome while preparing for another.

With five days left before she was supposed to leave the United States, Paula Godoy explained to her three children what it meant to be deported. With three days left, she packed her clothes and rosary beads into a makeshift suitcase. With two days left, she arranged to live in Guatemala with the only relative still there, a distant uncle whom she would identify at the airport by his orange Hawaiian shirt.

And on the last day, Godoy awoke next to her boyfriend in their Richmond apartment and confessed she had all but given up hope.

“There’s no time,â€