Thread: Churches torn over providing haven

Churches torn over providing haven

Sunday, September 23, 2007

By SAMANTHA HENRY
HERALD NEWS

http://www.northjersey.com

Churches, mosques and temples are often the first places immigrants encounter as newcomers. Now, many religious institutions touched by the immigration debate feel compelled to declare where they stand on the issue. Their responses range from adding social services, such as English classes or legal help, to offering sanctuary to undocumented immigrants seeking to avoid deportation.


"Congregations are looking at how-do-we-define-sanctuary even more broadly; how do we provide sanctuary in this moment in history for immigrants throughout our society?" Kim Bobo, the head of the Chicago-based Interfaith Worker Justice group said via telephone conference call. "This is an important crisis for our country, and the religious community is stepping up in many ways."

Bobo is a leading advocate of the "new sanctuary movement," in which churches act as havens for undocumented immigrants, hoping authorities won't enter religious institutions to arrest people. Nothing, however, precludes authorities from doing so under U.S. law. The movement is a revival of an effort begun in the 1980s, when churches across the United States offered refuge to Central Americans seeking asylum from their war-torn countries. Bobo said there are currently 24 sanctuary communities in the U.S. concentrated in five large cities, including New York.

To date, the issue has not arisen locally, but a consortium of Latino pastors from Passaic and Bergen counties met recently to discuss what they would do if it did.

"We do have our hand in the immigration debate; we support immigrants, and we support the rights of people, but we cannot use the church as a sanctuary," said the Rev. David Rios, a Clifton-based pastor and member of La Alianza Civica Ministerial, a consortium of Latino churches. "Others can do what they are prepared to do, but we are not prepared to do that."

Earlier this week, one so-called 'sanctuary' church in Simi Valley, Calif., was ordered to pay $40,000 in fines for letting an undocumented Central American woman and her American-born child take refuge in the church to avoid immigration authorities.

The municipality is billing the church for what it said was the cost of police overtime needed to control a large protest outside the church that resulted in a clash between immigrant supporters and opponents.

The California incident comes on the heels of a similar case, earlier this year, in which a Mexican immigrant facing deportation took refuge in a Chicago church with her American-born, 7-year-old son. The woman, Elvira Arellano, eventually was arrested and deported when she left the church to try to travel elsewhere.

High-profile cases such as Arellano's have brought the sanctuary issue to the forefront in North Jersey as elsewhere across the country.

Rios of La Alianza Civica Ministerial said many considerations were brought up during the group's recent discussion, such as how best to reconcile religious tenets of welcoming strangers and helping those in need with the fact that undocumented immigrants are violating U.S. law.

"You would need a team of lawyers to make sure a person has no criminal record," Rios said. "This would require an army of people that churches really don't have. In addition, there are laws. Even though among us Hispanic pastors, 80 percent of us are immigrants, we understand the need to follow the laws in this country."

Peggy Levitt, a Boston-based sociology professor and author of the book "God Needs No Passport: Immigrants and the Changing American Religious Landscape," said many religious communities are torn about what to do, especially in the absence of comprehensive immigration reform at the federal level.

"Congregations are at very different places as to what they feel comfortable doing," Levitt said, speaking on the same conference call as Bobo. "Most believe we need comprehensive immigration reform, though inside particular congregations, people are confused about what's the right thing to do."

Joseph Duffy, executive secretary of Catholic Charities, said the Paterson Diocese was a supporter of the Justice for Immigrants campaign, a nationwide effort by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops to press for comprehensive immigration reform. But Duffy said he did not know of any parishes in the diocese that had offered their churches as sanctuaries.

"Governments have the rights to protect their borders, but we need to be considerate of the stranger among us," he said. "We need to work for justice for all, including immigrants."

Originally Posted by GREGAGREATAMERICAN

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"Congregations are at very different places as to what they feel comfortable doing," Levitt said, speaking on the same conference call as Bobo. "Most believe we need comprehensive immigration reform, though inside particular congregations, people are confused about what's the right thing to do."


"Governments have the rights to protect their borders, but we need to be considerate of the stranger among us," he said. "We need to work for justice for all, including immigrants."

People are confused, because our Govt. has set a terrible example for obeying our laws, allowing millions of illegal invader's into OUR Country, our Govt. is turning a blind eye to the destructive consequences they impose on our Society, that along with the White man guilt, so many American's have bought into. Is it any wonder people in their congregations are confused. Let us hope the Santuary uproar, gives Congregants pause to think of what is truly right, obeying our Nation's laws and what is simple WRONG! Ignoring our National Security, slitting our throats so invaders from another Nation can replace U.S. Citizens, whose Costitutional Right to be protected by invasion from a foreign Nation has being completely ignored.

The stranger among us!!! The stranger is a lawbreaking tyrannt!