Thread: ILL-Feds avoid immigration arrests at churches

Fri, 11 Jul 2008 20:00:02 GMT
Feds avoid immigration arrests at churches
CHICAGO (AP) Everyone knows where Flor Crisostomo lives, even federal immigration officials who have ordered her deported to Mexico. Her address Adalberto United Methodist Church is the reason they haven't detained her.

Another woman famously took refuge in that church as she championed immigration reform, and at least 13 other illegal immigrants are doing the same at churches around the country. So far, they've had little to fear.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials have arrested illegal immigrants by the hundreds in raids at factories, restaurants, malls, farms and meat packing plants, but are handling cases involving churches delicately.

''Our agency takes enforcement actions when we deem it appropriate,'' said Julie Myers, assistant secretary of homeland security at ICE. ''I am personally not aware of an instance when ICE has gone into a church. That being said, if there was a particular, extremely egregious, ax murderer or something else, that's not to say we would not enforce the law at that time.''

Avoiding churches is unofficial policy for federal immigration officials, according to Doris Meissner, a former commissioner at the Immigration and Naturalization Service, the agency that oversaw immigration until the Department of Homeland Security was formed in 2003.

Since the 1970s the unwritten rule has been ''no churches, no playgrounds, no schools,'' said Meissner, now a senior fellow at the Migration Policy Institute in Washington, D.C.

Some say storming a church to arrest a lone person would appear insensitive. Others say making exceptions for churches, where immigrants openly and in Crisostomo's case, very publicly defy deportation, makes the agency look lax.

Crisostomo, who came to the U.S. in 2000 and was arrested in 2006 during a raid at a wooden pallet company in Chicago, has been at the West Side Chicago church for six months, holding news conferences, writing blogs and lecturing school groups about immigration issues.

''These are people who deliberately violated the law,'' said Dave Gorak, executive director of the Midwest Coalition to Reduce Immigration. ''We can't even enforce the laws without being criticized as Gestapo.''

But Meissner said it wouldn't make sense for the agency to devote resources to arrest the relatively small number of people in sanctuary.

''An agency like ICE has far more work than it can possibly ever do,'' Meissner said. ''You want to use those resources to thwart as much as possible egregious criminal behavior. A single person in a church doesn't really measure very high on a list.''

Over the past year, ICE has focused on raids at workplaces.

''They pick work sites because they understand it is work that acts as a lure for unauthorized migrants to come to the U.S.,'' said Louis DeSipio, a political science professor who teaches Chicano/Latino studies at the University of California, Irvine. ''ICE is sensitive to the publicity effect of their actions. They are careful on respecting religion and churches.''

At the same time, ICE must ''take into account that there is a public image issue and that they're being taunted,'' Meissner said.

Adalberto United Methodist gained international attention when it offered sanctuary to another immigrant, Elvira Arellano, who used it as a base to champion immigration reform.

Arellano stayed there for a year with her U.S.-born son, and frequently spoke about immigrant rights. She was arrested and deported to Mexico only after she left her sanctuary last August to travel to a rally in Los Angeles.

''We do conduct enforcement activities at a time and place of the government's choosing,'' said Myers, ICE's top official. ''With Ms. Arellano, we believe that an appropriate time was when she was kind of traveling outside of the institution.''

Arellano has been lauded as a heroine of the New Sanctuary Movement, which calls for immigration reform, and Crisostomo says she's following in Arellano's footsteps.

''We have to show the government that we are many, we are strong, we are humans and that we deserve respect in this country,'' said Crisostomo, who paid a smuggler in Mexico to get her across the border. ''This is a church that was made to help the fight of people who are undocumented.''

The New Sanctuary Movement, which makes living arrangements for illegal immigrants at churches, is modeled after a similar movement for Central Americans in the 1980s. Those in sanctuary now in Illinois, New York, Kansas, California and Washington were aided by the movement, said Kristin Kumpf, a national organizer for the movement.

The movement's goal is to call attention to immigration reform, but organizers believe sanctuary is a temporary solution, Kumpf said.

''The churches have been treated as sacred space,'' said Kumpf. But ''no one can stay in sanctuary forever.''


http://cbs2chicago.com/illinoiswire/22. ... -Churc.xml

''The churches have been treated as sacred space,'' said Kumpf. But ''no one can stay in sanctuary forever.''

But you have to do something or else it gives others the idea they can get away with it. They need to know there's no-where to hide. It's making a mockery of our legal system and putting churches in a very questionable position.

''The churches have been treated as sacred space,'' said Kumpf. But ''no one can stay in sanctuary forever.''

Anyone can declare any building a 'church'. Turn off internet, phone, water, electricity and gas services to these 'churches' and the people will come out all by themselves.

Since the 1970s the unwritten rule has been ''no churches, no playgrounds, no schools,'' said Meissner, now a senior fellow at the Migration Policy Institute in Washington, D.C.

Ok, once again I believe the agency has misinterpreted the "unwritten" rule regarding churches. The rule is likely observed so as not to barge into a church when services may have been in session. Further, the rule was probably implemented at a time when illegal invaders did not actively take sanctuary in a church to avoid orders of deportation.

However, when an illegal invader is using a church as a sanctuary device, living in that church, in order to intentionally evade federal authorities, you go in that church and arrest them!

The illegal invaders are making Julie Myers and her agency look like idiots. Julie, your job is to apprehend and deport illegal invaders, Not ax murders! Please understand that distinction. It is your job to go into that church and apprehend those who evade you.