Malloy: Immigration officials “stupid, but not that stupid.”

Malloy: Immigration officials “stupid, but not that stupid.”

HARTFORD — Gov. Dannel P. Malloy doubts that federal immigration officials will confront a Norwalk woman who sought sanctuary in a church rather than get deported back to her native Guatemala.

“They’re stupid but not that stupid,” Malloy told reporters in the Capitol less than 24 hours after appearing with Nury Chavarria at a pentecostal church in the Fair Haven neighborhood of New Haven on the night she was supposed to be flown back to Central America.

Typically, federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials do not pursue foreign-born people here without legal permission into sensitive locations such as churches. Chavarria, who has lived in the U.S. for 20 years, has four children, aged 9 to 21, and has followed the guidelines for obtaining permanent status, the governor said.