We are family.

At least that's the message more than 100 protestors had for motorists near Church Street and Wellesley Avenue Friday.

The protestors tied up rush hour traffic for about 15 minutes as they took to the streets to dance to the 1979 Sister Sledge song "We are Family" and call on the Canadian government to grant Alvaro Orozco a stay of deportation.

Orozco left his native Nicaragua at the age of 12 because he feared for his safety as a homosexual man. He has been in detention at the Toronto Immigration Holding Centre since he was arrested at Ossington station last week. Friends and colleagues of his say he could be deported any day now, despite having filed an outstanding humanitarian and compassionate considerations application that has yet to be heard.

"Alvaro is me, Alvaro is everyone here and we need to fight for him and anyone else who is seeking an opportunity to live a life with dignity and support," Leonardo Zuniga, a close friend of Orozco's, told CP24.com. "We really are family and if one person is struggling we are all struggling. That's why we are here today. Alvaro has been fighting for 13 years to be a citizen. He's committed to his community and he needs to be allowed to stay."

Orozco, who works as an artist and photographer, has been living illegally in Toronto since 2007.

He arrived in the city in 2006 after encountering prejudice in Honduras, Guatemala and Mexico.

Craig Fortier, an organizer of Friday's event, said the idea of a dance mob was actually born out Orozco's work.

"At a recent art showing Avaro was trying to explain this idea he had of staging a sort of dance mob in a forest and we tried to take from that," he told CP24.com following the event. "We weren't able to be in a forest, but we were able to have a dance mob proclaiming he is part of our family right in the middle of the community where he has established himself."

As the protestors held up photos of Orozco and chanted "We are family, let Alvaro be free" Friday, motorists tried to maneuver their way through the mess.

Fortier said he hoped people who came into contact with the mob, would take a minute to consider what the consequences would be for Orozco if he is in fact returned to Nicaragua.

"In 2007 his face and sexuality was flashed throughout the Nicaragua newspapers and for somebody to be publically put in the spotlight like that as an openly gay male, he would be endangered," he said.

NDP MP Olivia Chow and Ward 27 Coun. Kristyn Wong-Tam have both made public statements supporting Orozco's application to stay in Canada.

Fortier said in order for the application to be granted Orozco will have to prove that he belongs in Toronto. He'll also have to prove that he would be in danger if deported.

"He really has found a community for himself in the arts scene in Toronto, the queer community and the theatre community and we wanted to show that here," Fortier said.