Churches in a handful of US cities are preparing to launch a "sanctuary" movement to help illegal immigrants stave off deportation, hoping to unite faith-based groups in a push for immigration reform.
The "New Sanctuary Movement" is based on the sanctuary movement in the 1980s, when churches harbored Central American refugees who were fleeing wars in their home countries, said the Reverend Alexia Salvatierra, executive director of Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice, an interfaith association spearheading the plans.
"At the time we were able to make major changes and awaken the moral imagination of the community," Salvatierra said. "Immigration today is still a human rights issue."
Salvatierra said they were in the process of identifying immigrant families to assist, but declined further details.
The full plan, which included other major US cities, would be unveiled in several weeks, said Salvatierra, who is with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.
The movement "will enable congregations to publicly provide hospitality and protection to a limited number of immigrant families whose legal cases clearly reveal the contradictions and moral injustice of our current immigration system," according to the New Sanctuary Movement's Web site. The site lists Los Angeles, Chicago and New York as central cities.
The sanctuary movement of the 1980s included more than 200 churches of various denominations around the country. Several activists in a handful of states were arrested, often while transporting illegal immigrants from one place to another.
The new sanctuary plans come as immigration reform legislation has been stalled since last summer, with Congress split over whether to first strengthen border security and immigration laws or to extend a path to citizenship to illegal immigrants. They also come as hundreds of illegal immigrants have been detained and deported in raids of recent months.
Local and national religious leaders from a dozen faiths -- including Catholic, Methodist, Lutheran and Presbyterian -- have been meeting and planning for a few months, said Pastor Cesar Arroyo of San Pablo's Lutheran church in North Hollywood.
The group has been inspired by Elvira Arellano, an illegal immigrant from Mexico who has taken refuge at a Methodist church in Chicago since mid-August to avoid deportation, Arroyo said.
"We have to show that faith isn't just for church on Sunday," Arroyo said. "We can't just say `God bless you,' but if you are hungry or having problems we can't do anything for you."
Individual churches have been investigating the implications, both legal and otherwise, of providing refuge to illegal immigrants, said Jorge Mario Cabrera, associate director of Carecen, a Hispanic advocacy group in Los Angeles.
"Churches don't yet know what this will look like," Cabrera said. "They don't know if by declaring themselves a sanctuary more than 100 people will show up, and then where will they house them?"
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