Posted on 05/09/2007 9:49:56 AM PDT by NormsRevenge
Two churches intend to give sanctuary to illegal immigrants to protect them from deportation and put pressure on lawmakers to create a path to citizenship for an estimated 12 million illegal immigrants.
Beginning Wednesday, a Catholic Church in Los Angeles and a Lutheran church in North Hollywood each intend to shelter one person as part of the "New Sanctuary Movement."
A handful of churches in other U.S. cities plan similar efforts in the months ahead to spotlight the plight of illegal immigrants.
"We want to put a human face to very complex immigration laws and awaken the consciousness of the human spirit," said Father Richard Estrada of Our Lady Queen of Angels Catholic Church in Los Angeles, where one illegal immigrant will live.
Organizers don't believe immigration agents will make arrests inside the churches.
The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency has not tried to arrest Elvira Arrellano, an illegal immigrant who has taken shelter at a Methodist church in Chicago since August.
ICE spokeswoman Virginia Kice declined to say if agents would attempt to arrest others who take sanctuary in churches, although she did say agents have "the authority to arrest those who are in violation of our immigration laws anywhere in the United States."
Anti-illegal immigration groups called the sanctuary effort misguided.
The faith groups "don't seem to realize that they are being charitable with someone else's resources, and that's not charity," said Ira Mehlman of the Federation for American Immigration Reform, which favors limits on immigration.
"We are talking about illegal immigrants taking someone else's job, filling up the classroom of someone else's child," he said.
The sanctuary effort is loosely based on a movement in the 1980s, when churches harbored Central American refugees fleeing wars in their home countries. Organizers of the current movement include members of the Jewish, Muslim, Catholic and other faiths.
They believe the effort will give illegal immigrants a platform to share their stories of suffering in a way that pushes lawmakers toward reform.
Participating churches in San Diego, Seattle, Chicago and New York won't initially house illegal immigrants. Instead, leaders will provide legal council, accompany them to court hearings and prepare plans to house them in churches if authorities try to deport them.
The plans come as immigration reform legislation has been stalled since last summer, and tens of thousands of illegal immigrants have been detained and deported in stepped up immigration raids in recent months.
The first to receive refuge in Los Angeles will be a single father from Mexico who has two children who are U.S. citizens, said Rev. Alexia Salvatierra, executive director of Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice, an interfaith association spearheading the national plans.
The man, whose name was not released, worked 17 years as a cook at Los Angeles International Airport before getting injured on the job more than a year ago, she said. He has been unable to work and is facing deportation.
"If he goes back to Mexico, the family will literally not have enough food to eat," she said.
The other church will shelter an unidentified Guatemalan man who runs a small gardening business and has two U.S. citizen children. He fled Guatemala in the 1990s during its civil war. He has been denied political asylum and is facing deportation.
The churches put out calls for immigrants who were willing and wanted to take part in the sanctuary movement. Immigrants were screened to make sure they paid taxes and didn't have criminal backgrounds, Salvatierra said.
In New York, a handful of churches will be giving aid to a Haitian man and a Chinese couple, who are facing deportation and have U.S. citizen children, said Father Juan Carlos Ruiz.
Though the immigrants won't initially live in churches, three congregations are ready to take them in, Ruiz said.
"Depending on how immigration officials act toward us, we'll be escalating our actions," he said.
At the risk of inviting major flaming, I might say that the Underground Railroad was doing the same thing in the 1850's.
Shouldn’t they lose tax exempt status if they blatantly break the law?
If the Lutheran church is “St. Pauls First Lutheran Church” in North Hollywood, it used to be very conservative. My step father and some of his uncles were amongst the original founders of this church. I was back there a little over a year ago for my father’s funeral. He served in/attended that church his last 50 or 60 years of life.
The current pastor there is a very nice young family man. The church has lost many of it’s white parishioners over the years as the local area has become predominately hispanic. I do not attned services there, so it is hard for me to estimate the current racial mix.
I do know that attendence is way down and the church is likely struggling financially. As a side note, I was confirmed in this church and it is still a physically beautiful building.
Also, I know of no other Lutheran churches in North Hollywood, though this doesn’tmean there aren’t any. The area that North Hollywood covers is quite large and is all old-style suburbia.
Exactly my thoughts- no dough for illegal sanctuary.
That ain’t the half of it. My door-to-door audit of registered voters revealed that 50% (!!!!) of the registered voters were NON-EXISTENT PHANTOMS. Furthermore, Hermandad Mexicano National (a Marxist led organization) went door-to-door signing up illegals and others to vote; then they “helped” the new voters complete their absentee ballots. Get this...they used the money from their FEDERAL CONTRACT TO CAMPAIGN AGAINST BOB DORNAN. The organization lost their contract but nobody went to jail.
brazzaville: FYI, The Lutheran church is made of of several denominations, called 'synods'; the most liberal being the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA). Other Denominations, such as Lutheran Church Missouri Synod (LCMS),Wisconsin Lutheran Synod (WLS), are considerably more conservative.
Someone needs to ask those “Christian churches” what they mean by “sanctuary”...
There is no Biblical standard for “sanctuary” in order to hide criminals from the law..
There is an Old Testament practice for the Hebrews...
If one Hebrew accidently killed another he could flee to a “city of refuge” and be safe from revenge by the dead man’s family...as long as he stayed in the city...
There is no other allowance for anything close to “sanctuary” in the Bible..
Those “Christian churches” are using something God ordained for the Jews to “protect” law-breaking, criminal illegal aliens..
I don't suppose you ran this gem past George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Samual Adams, John Jay, John Hancock, Benjamin Franklin, etc etc? Hint, they all thought a little rebellion was ok with God.
“Whenever you did it for any of my people, no matter how unimportant they seemed, you did it for me.” (Matthew 25:40 CEV)
I understand the import of your post.
I guess that piece of scripture would lead one to believe that being as we are all “citizens of the world” and no borders should separate us or politics or legal system should cause us to be separated for any reasons or from bettering our condition/position in life, that what we are witnessing is WJWD.
Just curious, are you a natural born or naturalized citizen of the US? Some of your prior posts and your comments in the areas of geopolitik might suggest that, at least to me. Thanks.
the Underground Railroad was doing the same thing in the 1850’s.
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No flames here, it’s plenty hot already Thanks., I see your offering as a bit more so comparing apples and oranges.
Those coming here and now seeking sanctuary (and is some cases, after being here for many years) have countries that they could return too, with the exception of those who have legitimate claims to be made that persecution and harm would befall them if they did return to their country of origin for whatever reason.
Not so sure that in that timeframe , that those taking avail of the Underground RR were quite as likely or able to do so.
Those that seek to cure all the ails of others less fortunate then them may not fully comprehend the additional burdens they impose on others and at what cost to society as a whole.
St. Paul’s First Lutheran in North Hollywood is WELS. During my growing up and attendance there, I can describe it as conservative. How far they’ve drifted left, if at all, I cannot say.
However, on their website, I can see that one of the pastors is named Lynn W. I’ll ask my mom the next time I see her if Lynn is a she. Pastor Pufahl is the young pastor I referred to in my prior email. I believe he and his wife had two very young children and one on the way 16 months ago. Saint Paul’s First Lutheran has been extremely lucky in the quality and capabilities of the pastors we’ve been assigned, recruited. All of the pastors and vicors I remember have been top-notch and above board people. I cannot recall any scandals involving any of them that I remember and Pufahl was wonderful during and after the services for my dad.
I do not believe that currently many of their congregation is hispanic. I could be way off on this though. I base this on my conversations with people who knew my father and to who I talked with a year ago at the funeral. It would be curious to know the break-down, only because the surrounding area is predominately hispanic. I know that they were/are trying to regrow the churh congregation and part of that effort would be to get more folks from the local community to attend.
The picture of the church on the website does not do justice to all the beautiful stained glass windows contained in the structure.
I have dual citizenship by birth. And no, my other citizenship is not East European.
My point was to demonstrate why churches, which have offered sanctuary since the Middle Ages, still do so.
I haven’t formulated an opinion on immigration, other than the fact I have no problem with what the churches are doing, as it is a matter of conscience.
That's interesting. If only because WELS is considered one of the more conservative Lutheran synods. It's even considered, by some, to be more conservative than the LCMS (my synod, although at one time I've been a member of WELS and of ELCA).
If you could gain any incite to their thinking, it would be appreciated. Something like this may not be notable if it were the ELCA, but if the WELS, it's surprising.
Bingo and cut off the power and water to offending churches as well
Here is their link: http://www.stmatthewsnoho.org/
If I was a betting man, I’d say St. Matthews is the unnamed Lutheran church harboring an illegal alien for political purposes. I have no hard evidence to support this though.
Dual citizenship, might I ask what the other country is?
as to a matter of conscience and churches doing this for hundreds of years, would you seek to take this country back to the Dark Ages, all for a matter of conscience?
You posted that scripture piece for a reason, I guess that was it.
If I were a betting man, I'd be right beside you on that bet. It fits the ELCA agenda far more than WELS beliefs.
And the juxtaposition of 'agenda' and 'beliefs' is intentional.
I don’t think it is a matter of taking anything back to the Dark Ages.
Some truths, and some actions, are universal and immutable.
Truths are relative to one’s view of things.
You are entitled to your point of view, btw, what was the other country you hold dual citizenship in?
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