IMMIGRATIONS RIGHTS AND
THE NEW SANCTUARY MOVEMENT

Legislation passed the Federal House of Representatives in December 2005 with draconian provisions making it a felony to be undocumented or serve undocumented immigrants. The wave of anti-immigrant sentiment that produced this legislation also led to a series of workplace and home raids in which immigrant families with citizen children are being torn apart by an ineffective and immoral immigration system.

CLUE-CA responded to these legislative and regulatory attacks on immigrant workers by seeking for the unique contribution that religious leaders could make, which resulted by November in the formation of a new Sanctuary movement.

The New Sanctuary Movement involves congregations in supporting, hosting, accompanying and advocating for immigrant families facing deportation. In addition to directly serving immigrants, the movement also seeks to use the moral clout of the religious community to publicize the stories of immigrant families in sanctuary - creating a powerful vehicle to change the hearts and minds of non-immigrants, to galvanize civic participation in the process of comprehensive immigration reform and to heal the trauma of immigrant workers experiencing the hatred of anti-immigrant forces.

The movement quickly expanded beyond California and has involved interfaith coalitions in over 50 cities. Across the country, it has received over 1500 media hits, including articles in Time Magazine, Newsweek, the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, and a front page article in USA Today.

In our second year, our goals are:

Expansion: We will continue to develop new sanctuary sites in California and to provide technical assistance to new strategic locations around the country that are interested in providing sanctuary.

Education: We will develop a DVD, testimony booklet and sanctuary relatives' speakers bureau to carry the power of the sanctuary stories to non-immigrant congregations. We will work through denominational structures to make these presentations part of the recommended educational curriculum.

Prophetic Advocacy: We will bring these materials and sanctuary representatives to meet with legislators to talk about values (not policy) and begin to change their perspectives.

ICE Advocacy: We will continue to develop the special role of the religious community as a mediator between immigrant families facing deportation and the immigration and customs enforcement service to explore mechanisms for reducing deportation of immigrants with citizen children, particularly in the case of immigrant leaders.

California has the highest number of immigrant families in sanctuary of any state in the country. The movement's ability to reveal immigrants as our sisters and brothers and as God's sacred children has transformed and awakened non-immigrant congregations and reframed the entire immigration debate.