Thread: Sanctuary pastors decry deportation

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Sanctuary pastors decry deportation
By Connie Llanos and Rachel Uranga, Staff writers
Long Beach Press Telegram
Article Launched:08/20/2007 09:27:43 PM PDT

NORTH HOLLYWOOD - As one of four undocumented immigrants taking refuge in churches across Los Angeles County, Juan hasn't been able to step outside the four walls of San Pablo's Lutheran Church in more than three months.
But for the Guatemalan immigrant, who has lived in Los Angeles for the last 15 years, the hardest part has been not seeing his two young daughters.

"It is hard not to get that laughter when you come home from work, or those hugs," he said Monday at the church.

Juan, whose last name church officials would not disclose, has been thrust into the heart of a nationwide debate after 32-year-old Elvira Arellano was arrested and deported late Sunday when she left the sanctuary of a Chicago church to attend a rally in Los Angeles.

In Los Angeles County, where the undocumented single mother was arrested outside Our Lady Queen of Angels church in downtown L.A., more than a dozen churches have declared themselves sanctuaries for illegal immigrants facing deportation.

St. Luke's Episcopal Church in Long Beach, as well as San Pablo's and neighboring North Hollywood church Our Lady of the Holy Rosary Parish have signed on to the New Sanctuary Movement.

On Monday, the day after the symbolic face of the immigrant sanctuary movement was deported to Tijuana, other supporters vowed that the movement will not be crushed.

"This will not stop the sanctuary movement," said Walter Coleman, pastor of the Chicago church where Arellano took refuge last year to avoid being separated from her 8-year-old U.S.-born son, Saul.

"It's based on faith, not fear. It's not a place to hide, it's a place to bear witness that this country is destroying families."

But the deportation and sanctuary movement also has drawn strong reactions from anti-illegal immigrant backers who said Arellano had it coming.

"She practically dared the government to arrest her," said Ira Mehlman, spokesman for the Federation for American Immigration Reform, which supports tougher immigration restrictions.

`A fighting spirit'

Arellano's case was widely followed in the Spanish-language media and goes to the heart of what many activists say is a broken immigration system's most troubling byproduct: the ripping apart of families.

"People come here for one simple reason. This is the largest economy in the world," said Juan Jose Gutierrez, co-coordinator of Latino Movement USA, a national coalition of pro-immigrant rights organizations. "They come here out of desperation and need, and to put food on the table."

On Friday, Arellano had traveled to Los Angeles to begin a campaign to press Congress to pass immigration reforms that would give the United States' 12 million illegal immigrants a path to citizenship. But she was arrested about 2 p.m. Sunday by immigration officials.

"They were in a hurry to deport me because they saw that I was threatening to mobilize and organize the people to fight for legalization," Arellano said outside a Tijuana apartment building Monday where she was staying with a friend.

"I have a fighting spirit and I'm going to continue fighting."

Arellano said her son might be brought to her in Tijuana soon, adding, "I'm going to ask if he wants to stay with me or if he wants to return to his school (in the U.S.)."

Her deportation process was quick, she noted, and she now might return to her home in the Mexican state of Michoacan.

Meanwhile, government officials defended her deportation.

"We think that she is a criminal fugitive alien in violation of U.S. law," said Jim Hayes, director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Los Angeles Office of Detention and Removal Operations.

"Her arrests were no different than any other arrests we make."

Hayes said that from October 2006 to July 2007, immigration officials deported more than 200,000 illegal immigrants.

Last year, an immigration judge ordered Arellano's deportation. She had illegally entered the United States in 1997 and was sent back to Mexico, then re-entered and was arrested in 2002 for using a fake Social Security number to get a janitorial job at O'Hare International Airport in Chicago.

Vigils were held Monday night in Los Angeles and Chicago, where Arellano evaded immigration officials for more than a year by living in Adalberto United Methodist Church.

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said he will ask top immigration officials to brief the city on future enforcement action.

"The manner of the arrest and deportation in this case raises concerns in our community," said Villaraigosa, who has appeared at immigration rallies in the city in support of reform.

"As mayor of a city that is over 40 percent foreign-born, I can tell you, when families are torn apart, our communities are torn apart."

Taking refuge

In Long Beach, an illegal immigrant named Liliana and her U.S.-born infant son have been at St. Luke's Episcopal Church since June 8.

Liliana, a Mexican native whose last name was withheld, and her 6-month-old son Pablo sought sanctuary after officers from Immigrations and Customs Enforcement came to her house with an order of deportation.

Liliana's husband and three children are U.S. citizens, but Liliana is ineligible for citizenship because she committed a felony by using a fake birth certificate when she first attempted to enter the United States nearly a decade ago.

Julie Wakelee-Lynch, assistant rector at St. Luke's, said Arellano's arrest and deportation changed nothing at her church.

"Liliana will be here as long as necessary," Wakelee-Lynch said. Liliana was unavailable for comment.

Wakelee-Lynch also had praise for Arellano.

"I believe that Elvira (Arellano) succeeded in her goal of being an inspiration to immigrants in this country by refocusing attention on the thousands of families who are in the same or similar situation as hers," she said. "The purpose of the New Sanctuary Movement, which is a religious-based movement throughout the United States, is to focus attention on the individual stories of immigrants whose families are being pulled apart by the current implementation of immigration policy."

Yolanda, an undocumented single mother, has been staying at Immanuel Presbyterian Church for a month, about three miles from L.A. City Hall.

The Guatemalan immigrant, who has a teenage daughter born in the United States, took refuge at the Wilshire Boulevard church after receiving a deportation order.

"There are thousands and thousands of examples of families being separated," said Samuel Chu, a pastor there. "We need to have a discussion to change this policy."

At San Pablo's in North Hollywood, Pastor Cesar Arroyo said Monday that before taking Juan in, the church ensured he had been working, paying taxes, had no criminal record and had U.S.-born children.

Immigrants who are given sanctuary also have to be under deportation orders. Juan was served with such an order in April after spending more than $5,000 on immigration court proceedings.

Arroyo said immigrants who are given sanctuary also must have a strong case for potentially being granted citizenship - including having children or parents who are U.S. citizens.

Since early May, when Juan began staying at the East Valley church, Arroyo said he has received strong support from parishioners.

"That is the church's work, to help those in need," Arroyo said. "The Bible says honor they neighbor. Well today, Juan is my neighbor."

But some community members have expressed anger over the church's involvement in such a contentious issue.

Barbara Coe, chairwoman for the California Coalition for Immigration Reform, said she resents religious leaders using religion as an excuse to harbor undocumented immigrants.

"Our Lord has already settled the question of how to define illegal aliens," Coe said, citing scripture that essentially says anyone who enters a place via the back door should be considered a thief or a robber.

"They are aiding, abetting and harboring illegal aliens, criminals, and they should be prosecuted."

The Rev. Richard Zanotti of Our Lady of the Holy Rosary Parish said no laws officially protect churches from prosecution for giving sanctuary to illegal immigrants.

But, he said, centuries of an unspoken agreement between law enforcement and clergy have led religious leaders to believe they can provide safe havens.

Zanotti said churches currently are the only houses of worship sheltering undocumented immigrants, while other faiths and denominations provide help with food and clothing.

Volunteers have helped Juan maintain a small gardening business for the last three months. The money from the endeavor lets him continue to pay the mortgage on the home he purchased three years ago in Los Angeles.

He gets three meals a day, catered by volunteers who stay and eat with him since he's not allowed to step outside the church grounds.

Still, he says he's grateful for everything he has been given. And nightly visits from his daughters and his mother help pass the time.

"I worry for them," he said. "What would you have done if someone would have taken your parents away?"

But he doesn't fear the future.

"I am not scared because I haven't done anything wrong," he said. "I would be scared if I killed someone, if the police were after me, but this isn't a big crime, coming here looking for a crumb of bread for my family."

Staff writer Greg Mellen and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

http://www.presstelegram.com/news/ci_6675084

This will not stop the sanctuary movement," said Walter Coleman, pastor of the Chicago church where Arellano took refuge last year to avoid being separated from her 8-year-old U.S.-born son, Saul.

"It's based on faith, not fear. It's not a place to hide, it's a place to bear witness that this country is destroying families."

What a load of donkey doo ........give me a break she IS A CRIMINAL and allowing criminals to hide in churches is destroying the fabric of our law enforcement and the stability of our country!!!!

They should be fighting for CHANGE IN MEXICO AND SOUTH AMERICA!

LAWS MUST BE UPHELD IN AMERICA!

Even if I DON'T AGREE with sanctuary churches, they were first used for political/religious persecution. EVIL-RA, Liliana, et al are NOT politically or religiously persecuted. They are ECONOMIC opportunists. They have repeatedly admitted that themselves ("I came here to earn money.").

EVIL-RA, Liliana, et al: What if Guatemalans/Hondurans/El Salvadoreans seek refuge in Mexico's churches because the Mexican Gov't has issued them deportation orders? You gonna be OK with that? Or are you gonna fight the Mexican Gov't?

Note the request of the Pro-illegal mayor of LA for "advance notice" of future actions by ICE. Are you kidding me? Why would we want to grant you advance notice, so you can "Leak" the raid times/dates? We may be Gringos but we're not STUPID gringos! Hopefully you will be "accidently" caught up in one of the UNANNOUNCED raids & be sent to where you also belong, on the OTHER side. If family breakup is such an issue please feel free to take your anchors with you. I could be talked into chipping in for a one way ticket!