Churches Promise To Shelter Illegal Immigrants

Several churches close to the Kansas City area are contributing refuge to illegal immigrants facing deportation if they have no criminal records, American-born children, and have worked in the United States for no less than five years. The New Sanctuary Movement is making it's way to churches nationwide. This is putting many churches at jeopardy considering the fear of immigration officials raiding the premises to make arrests. According to Alexia Salvatierra of Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice, which helps organize sanctuary cases, more than 600,000 families nationwide face deportation. There are 20 churches in the Kansas City area who have signed up to give support and shelter if needed. Not one of the churches has taken in an illegal immigrant yet.
The churches said that granting shelter is not against the law since church members wouldn't obstructing with officials stepping onto church property.

Churches in Long Beach are also becoming a part of The New Sanctuary Movement. "The movement as a whole is responding to families being broken by a broken immigration system," said Salvatierra. Churches cannot block law enforcement from coming into the church and taking out those who seek sanctuary, it has yet to happen. "There's a moral and spiritual circle that's created that the government has decided not to cross," Salvatierra said.

Providing sanctuary is an ancient system and was normal in Europe throughout the 18th century. Recently in U.S. history, sanctuary became an issue in 1982, when 500 churches and religious organizations took refuge in Central American refugees fleeing the civil war by helping them cross the border and live underground. Associatesof the new movement say they are not violating the law because they are advertising the movement and they are not making an effort to hide the immigrants.