Little Girl Pleads With the Pope to Protect Her Parents From Deportation

Sofía Cruz, a five-year-old girl, changed all that when the media turned its attention to her mission to deliver a handwritten, heartbreaking letter to the Pope. She defied all security protocols when she handed the pope her letter. “I am an American citizen with Mexican roots”.

“Quiero contarte que Michigan corazon esta triste por el odio y la discriminacion haicia los immigrantes de este pais”, Sophie wrote, which translates to: “I want to tell you that my heart is sad about the discrimination of the immigrants in this country”.

Sophie: “I have a right to be happy.”

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“Tragically, the rights of those who were here long before us were not always respected”. My dad works really hard in a factory galvanizing metal. She hopes one day she won’t live in fear that her father could be forced out of the country they call home.

The Cruz family were among a group of a dozen faithful who travelled from Our Lady, Queen of the Angels parish in Los Angeles to see the Pope in Washington, D.C. “She somehow in her mind, a 5-year-old just spontaneously jumped and decided to run to the pope”.

Sofi and her father will appear at a rally and news conference Wednesday evening at the Capitol.

“We have been working for a while now trying to sensitize the American public that dealing with immigration is not just dealing with the people who came in without proper documents but that we also have … countless children whose parents are undocumented“, Gutierrez said.

Sophie: “My friends and I love each other no matter our skin color.”

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11-year-old Jersey Vargas traveled there to help her father, Mario, who was in the custody of USA immigration.

Pope Francis is renowned for being sympathetic to the plight of migrants and introduced himself to Americans on the podium as ‘the son of an immigrant family’.

“I didn’t. I don’t think anybody really knew she was going to do that”.

ABC News obtained a photo of the letter written in Spanish that Sophie presented to Pope Francis. She delivered a yellow T-shirt to him that said “Papa rescate DAPA”, which means, “Pope rescue DAPA”. Isai Pazos said while activists planned the trip, it was Sophie who decided when to make her move.

But her mission would only be complete when she handed the Catholic leader a note seeking his support to push for immigration reform.

When Pope Francis speaks of being an immigrant, he’s referring to his birth in Argentina, to Italian parents.