Four children under the age of 15 are on the verge of losing their mother, and a husband is about to lose his wife.

Francisca Lino is the wife of a U.S. citizen and the mother of four U.S. citizens. She is a citizen of Mexico.

On Oct. 21, she faces deportation, which will separate her from her family for at least 10 years.

Unless her family's lawyer can persuade officials to let her stay.

Lino’s supporters point out that she has committed no crime other than the immigration violation, which they say is a technicality: She had traveled to Mexico for a family emergency against the rules of a process to grant her citizenship. There are 476,000 others across America in this position.

“These people have to choose [between] seeing a loved one before they die or screwing up a potential case that they may have 10 years from now,” said Chris Bergin, Lino’s immigration lawyer.

The Lino family, ministers across Chicago and neighborhood supporters rallied at the Adalberto United Methodist Church in Humboldt Park Wednesday night to kick off a two-week fast in support of families like the Linos. The church has championed the cause of immigrants at risk of deportation by providing sanctuary to women who are threatened with deportation.

The fast is for the national “Ya Basta” campaign, which is Spanish for “enough is enough.” The campaign demands a moratorium on raids and deportations when immigrants have no criminal history other than immigration violations.

The Rev. Walter Coleman, pastor at Adalberto, said, “The objective of the October campaign in Illinois and throughout the nation is to establish a moratorium roll call for all candidates running for office in the November elections.”

“The Senate is about to cast a bill for $700 billion to rescue Wall Street,” he said, adding, “They say it’s not a perfect bill, but they have to act because of the crisis. Yet, for almost nine years Congress has been discussing and debating how to fix the immigration system, but somehow this was not a crisis, not big enough.”

Bergin said they have been working with more than 30 families like the Linos to get Congress to allow them to become legal residents in the U.S.

Right now they are trying to put together a motion to keep Lino with her family, something that attorneys say is within the discretion of immigration and custom enforcement.

“Psychologically, emotionally, mentally, financially, this is going to have a huge impact on five U.S. citizens,” Bergin said.

Without her financial contribution and support for the family, her supporters say, the Lino family will default on their mortgage.

If the court does not allow the motion, Lino will have to go back to Mexico for 10 years before she can apply for permission to come in through her husband. It will then be up to immigration officials whether to grant her a waiver.