Campaigners mounted an 11th-hour protest against a grandmother being deported to Zimbabwe.
An outspoken critic of the Mugabe regime, Evenia Mawongera fears she will be in danger if she is put on a plane to Harare tomorrow.
The 55-year-old is in detention and her lawyers are lodging an appeal against a Home Office order to remove her from Britain.
More than 1,000 people have signed a petition imploring Home Secretary Theresa May to quash the deportation order.
Yesterday, members of the Zimbabwe Association Choir sang in the Town Hall Square as supporters gave out flyers and urged people to sign the petition.
Ambrose Musiyiwa, a University of Leicester student who is supporting the family, said: "She has lived in Leicester for 10 years and is part of the community. She has told the UK Border Agency she has been outspoken against the Zimbabwe government and fears being persecuted when she returns.
"The intelligence service in Harare will know her when she steps off the plane."
The mother-of-two, who has four grandchildren and is an active member of the Methodist Church in Leicester, is in a detention centre in Bedfordshire and has been told she will be removed from the UK tomorrow.
She is hoping a last-minute appeal will win her the right to remain in the UK.
Ambrose said: "I spoke to her and she is in shock and distress because her family is about to be split up."
She fled persecution in Zimbabwe 10 years ago and settled in Leicester, joining her two daughters, who had been granted leave to stay in the UK after completing their studies here.
She had made a number of unsuccessful applications for leave to remain here.
Ambrose said: "We want Theresa May to release Evenia from the Yarl's Wood Immigration Removal Centre and allow her to return to her family in Leicester while she fights her case."
He said additional names were due to be added to the petition after it was circulated in Leicester churches on Sunday.
Susan Skyrme, of the Leicester City of Sanctuary asylum seekers support group, said: "Evenia is a very popular member of our group. We believe she deserves to be granted asylum status because she faces very real danger if she is returned to Zimbabwe."
One of her daughters, 33-year-old Loreen Mawongera, said she and her sister were very worried about what awaits their mother should she be deported.
She said: "We want her to be allowed to come back to Leicester while we appeal against her removal."
Leicester West MP Liz Kendall said she had taken up the case with the Immigrations Minister. She said: "I am very concerned by Evenia's case, particularly the claim she would be at grave risk of arrest, persecution and serious ill-treatment if she were to be returned to Zimbabwe."
A Home Office spokesman said it only returned individuals if both it and the courts were satisfied the individual did not qualify for protection and had no legal basis to remain in the country.
