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 News from Around the Americas | May 2007 
Churches to Begin Providing Sanctuary to Illegal Immigrants
 Peter Prengaman - Associated Press
| | The sanctuary effort is loosely based on a movement in the 1980s, when churches harbored Central American refugees fleeing wars in their home countries. |
Los Angeles, CA - Two churches intend to give sanctuary to illegal immigrants to protect them from deportation and put pressure on lawmakers to create a path to citizenship for an estimated 12 million illegal immigrants.
Beginning Wednesday, a Catholic Church in Los Angeles and a Lutheran church in North Hollywood each intend to shelter one person as part of the "New Sanctuary Movement."
A handful of churches in other U.S. cities plan similar efforts in the months ahead to spotlight the plight of illegal immigrants.
"We want to put a human face to very complex immigration laws and awaken the consciousness of the human spirit," said Father Richard Estrada of Our Lady Queen of Angels Catholic Church in Los Angeles, where one illegal immigrant will live.
Organizers don't believe immigration agents will make arrests inside the churches.
The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency has not tried to arrest Elvira Arrellano, an illegal immigrant who has taken shelter at a Methodist church in Chicago since August.
ICE spokeswoman Virginia Kice declined to say if agents would attempt to arrest others who take sanctuary in churches, although she did say agents have "the authority to arrest those who are in violation of our immigration laws anywhere in the United States."
Anti-illegal immigration groups called the sanctuary effort misguided.
The faith groups "don't seem to realize that they are being charitable with someone else's resources, and that's not charity," said Ira Mehlman of the Federation for American Immigration Reform, which favors limits on immigration.
"We are talking about illegal immigrants taking someone else's job, filling up the classroom of someone else's child," he said.
The sanctuary effort is loosely based on a movement in the 1980s, when churches harbored Central American refugees fleeing wars in their home countries. Organizers of the current movement include members of the Jewish, Muslim, Catholic and other faiths.
They believe the effort will give illegal immigrants a platform to share their stories of suffering in a way that pushes lawmakers toward reform.
Participating churches in San Diego, Seattle, Chicago and New York won't initially house illegal immigrants. Instead, leaders will provide legal council, accompany them to court hearings and prepare plans to house them in churches if authorities try to deport them.
The plans come as immigration reform legislation has been stalled since last summer, and tens of thousands of illegal immigrants have been detained and deported in stepped up immigration raids in recent months.
The first to receive refuge in Los Angeles will be a single father from Mexico who has two children who are U.S. citizens, said Rev. Alexia Salvatierra, executive director of Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice, an interfaith association spearheading the national plans.
The man, whose name was not released, worked 17 years as a cook at Los Angeles International Airport before getting injured on the job more than a year ago, she said. He has been unable to work and is facing deportation.
"If he goes back to Mexico, the family will literally not have enough food to eat," she said.
The other church will shelter an unidentified Guatemalan man who runs a small gardening business and has two U.S. citizen children. He fled Guatemala in the 1990s during its civil war. He has been denied political asylum and is facing deportation.
The churches put out calls for immigrants who were willing and wanted to take part in the sanctuary movement. Immigrants were screened to make sure they paid taxes and didn't have criminal backgrounds, Salvatierra said.
In New York, a handful of churches will be giving aid to a Haitian man and a Chinese couple, who are facing deportation and have U.S. citizen children, said Father Juan Carlos Ruiz.
Though the immigrants won't initially live in churches, three congregations are ready to take them in, Ruiz said.
"Depending on how immigration officials act toward us, we'll be escalating our actions," he said. |
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