Thread: CA: Sanctuary for immigrants starts in East Bay

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Sanctuary for immigrants starts in East Bay
By Rebecca Rosen Lum
CONTRA COSTA TIMES
Contra Costa Times

Article Launched:06/15/2007 04:44:07 PM PDT

Houses of worship are circling the wagons around an estimated 12 million immigrants at risk of deportation nationwide in a sweeping partnership called the New Sanctuary Movement.
In the East Bay, more than 10 congregations have agreed to provide housing, legal, financial, or child care help to targeted families. Officials haven't released the names of the participating houses of worship, but expect to in early July.

As many as 100 congregations have expressed an interest in participating, said the Rev. Sharon Brostrum, regional coordinator.

Interfaith organizations launched the New Sanctuary Movement in Los Angeles, New York and San Diego on May 9.

Clergy announced the Bay Area link-up at a San Jose press conference Thursday just as the doomed federal immigration reform bill came up for air.

The bill, since buoyed by an extra $4.4 billion in border security, would introduce a "guest worker" program that would require trips back and forth to the country of origin. It would also penalize companies that hire illegal immigrants. The undocumented could obtain legal status, but at a cost of $5,000. And family ties would no longer be given primary weight in determining eligibility. The Senate is expected to vote on the bill before the July 4 recess.

Regardless of the immigration bill, the federal "Operation Return to Sender" netted 13,000 arrests nationwide from June to January, and 119 people in Contra Costa in 12 days, according to government figures. The program targeted those with criminal backgrounds but allowed "collateral" arrests of anyone else present whose legal status was unresolved.

In shielding those at risk of deportation, "We have a very specific covenant," said the Rev. Carol Been, Northern California director of Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice.

Part of that covenant is that the families who receive sanctuary will agree to go public.

"The mantra of 'They broke the law' has been in the media so much that the human face is getting lost," Been said. "We have people who are quite heroic who are willing to stand up and be one of those human faces.

"Families are getting torn apart, the victims of legalese -- citizen children torn from their parents," she said. "Most have had lawyers who cheated them. In a nation in which family values are at the top of the list and hard work is prized, we feel we have to stand with them."

Speaking publicly will not place the families in danger, because they will have mounted a legal challenge with the help of the congregations. That puts deportation proceedings on hold, Brostrum said.

The coalition is guarding the identity of one family whose case is to be heard in the Ninth District Court of Appeals in about two weeks, as well as the name of the Concord church providing sanctuary.

"Those who willfully violate U.S. immigration laws face the consequences of their actions," says a prepared statement issued by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. It did not address religious sanctuary directly.

But ICE spokeswoman Virginia Kice said many of the people targeted for deportation received notices and ignored them.

Others "have been litigating for years," she said. "They've had abundant access to due process."

Contra Costa faith leaders say residents like Norma Mejia are more typical of those who run afoul of immigration laws.

Mejia's husband was on his way home from work when agents arrested him with a deportation order. The Richmond man was transported to a federal detention center in Eloy, Ariz. For two weeks, his wife, who was born in the United States, did not know where he was.

"I got him back but it cost me a lot," she said. "Now, he just works and comes home. He feels afraid and sad."

In another case, 22-year resident applied for an update to his green card and found himself arrested instead, Brostrum said.

This sanctuary movement differs from the movement of the 1980s, when churches housed asylum seekers from El Salvador and other Latin American countries where juntas routinely suppressed human rights.

"In that case, people were leaving their countries in fear for their lives," Been said. "Now we have people who have been here for 22 years."

Religious leaders have organized and played an increasingly vocal role in the debate over immigration.


Sojourners, a national faith-based advocacy organization, has launched a campaign to draw attention to the plight of tomato pickers, whose wages have not risen in 30 years, and whose working conditions are so severe the U.S. Department of Justice prosecuted growers for slavery conditions five times since 1997.

More than 30 priests, pastors, imams and rabbis gathered at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in Los Angeles in May to ask lawmakers to map a feasible path to citizenship. They also announced their intention to shelter two Central American men from deportation.

Members of the Contra Costa Interfaith Supporting Committee in May testified before a Senate committee about deportation's devastating effects on residents, including the Mejias.

http://www.contracostatimes.com/ci_6151482?source=rss

As someone who has always been interested in missionary programs of religious groups I have been stuggling to find an approach that will work with such people. There are trends which begin within the conservative circles of American Christianity and eventually make it to other sectors--but sometimes it takes decades. A case in point is "contemporary worship" which, when given radio airtime, eventually has been picked up by other groups seeking to add a little excitement to their programs.

A trend primarily from the religiously conservative Sunbelt states has been the short term missions trip--frequently to Mexico but also to Indian reservations plus other Latin American destinations, but also Africa and Asia. Now this trend is countrywide. It has begun to expand into mainstream churches but other religious groups seem to see a converse religious duty in helping migrants who have come into this country. The problem is that this will get down to even tougher choices as migrants displace American workers and change communities.

An alliance of these religious congregations and other special interest groups has inevitably to lead to politically correct litmus tests. Ever more dangerous ideologies will surface, fired by religious indignation. Having experienced the fickleness of the labor movement, the outraged zeal of certain religious people and the general corruption of American society I can say that there is much to fear as church groups seek to hide and protect a group that others want to see exposed.

I expect this Sanctuary movement to be large. I do have literature which describes ooportunities for people who want to serve---in other countries.
I have been handing these out to the clergy or other leaders I meet. They seem to be initially shocked and shamed but then eventually resort to thir original preconceptions and plans with their group. We should not underestimate the extent of organization of these religious groups.