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Cities rethink sanctuary status
Cambridge studies 1985 resolution on immigration
By Catherine Elton, Globe Correspondent | April 21, 2006

In the 1980s, cities scattered across the United States, including Cambridge, declared themselves sanctuaries for undocumented immigrants fleeing the ravages of war in Central America.

Now, as the immigration debate heats up in Congress, some sanctuary cities are dusting off their decades-old designations and new ones are springing up to embrace immigrants, regardless of where they came from, why they're here, or if they are undocumented.

On May 8, the Cambridge City Council will consider joining that list by reaffirming its 1985 resolution declaring itself a sanctuary city. If the resolution passes, the liberal bastion will join at least four cities in California that are taking preemptive stands and declaring they won't enforce proposed new federal laws criminalizing immigration violations.

''It is important for the city of Cambridge to reaffirm the rights of all immigrants in this country. We are a sanctuary city and we welcome everyone and treat everyone with dignity," Vice Mayor Timothy J. Toomey Jr. said yesterday.

Toomey said that under the resolution, no immigrant can be denied education or healthcare based on their immigration status. Cambridge police officers cannot arrest people for immigration violations.

The proposal was well received by many of the people who were involved in Cambridge's sanctuary movement in the 1980s.

''It's important for people in healthcare and the police and any city employees not to feel that they have to do the federal government's dirty work," said Jim Wallace who was involved in drafting the original 1985 resolution.

San Salvador's auxiliary archbishop, Monsignor Gregorio Rosa Chávez, was in Cambridge yesterday to receive an award from a local immigrants' rights group. He said despite the fact that the sanctuary movement was originally founded to give refuge from political violence to Central Americans, it is still a valid concept even in the absence of armed conflicts.

''The situation of [El Salvador] is one of such injustice and poverty that it too is a war," he said.

On the streets of Cambridge yesterday many people didn't know of the upcoming vote, or that Cambridge was already a sanctuary city. Nonetheless, many of them thought the spirit of the resolution was consistent with the city's diverse nature.

''The reason we live in Cambridge is because all different kinds of people come here and we want it to stay that way," said pediatrician Beth Wigden, 52, while walking through Central Square.

Not everyone agreed with the resolution, however. Julie, a Cambridge resident who preferred not to give her last name, said that Cambridge would do better to send undocumented immigrants back to where they came from.

''There are too many people in the city. If they don't have the papers to live and work here they shouldn't be here," she said.

Toomey says he realizes that the resolution could also put the city in a potential conflict with the federal government.