From 2014:
“Young Jersey Vargas arrived at the Vatican Wednesday morning carrying a cloth handkerchief her mother sewed with the words “Nest of Love” across the front.
The 10-year-old girl's hope was to be able to hand it directly to none other than the pope himself.
Despite a note from Los Angeles Archbishop José Gomez that got Vargas and a group of southern California immigration activists a general audience with Pope Francis, in reality there was still a slim chance that the young girl would actually get close enough to get a good look at leader of the Catholic Church, let alone be able to ask him to help her father, who faces deportation.
But yet there he was, standing right in front of her.
The talkative and self-assured Vargas quickly handed Pope Francis the engraved good-luck charm she had brought from California and received a blessing and kiss from the pope, before pleading her family’s case to the pontiff.
The unlikely gathering took place just one day before Pope Francis was scheduled to receive President Barack Obama.
I think he’ll talk to President Obama about it because it’s important to stop deporting people and breaking up families.
- Jersey Vargas
“I told him to pray for my family and to ask the president to stop deportation because it's separating my family,” Vargas told Fox News Latino in a telephonic interview from Rome following her papal visit. “He blessed me and told me he would bring this up with President Obama.”..”
“...The stunt has been organized by immigration advocacy group Hermandad Mexicana Transnacional, in Los Angeles.
Alicia Flores, executive director of La Hermandad, chose Sophie to approach the pope after a young girl was able to approach the pope in Rome in a similar incident, reported the Washington Post.
She and her family were flown out to Washington as part of a group of six children and 19 adults, with the hope of delivering their message on immigration...”