Churches offering sanctuary to immigrants

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15. Here's an old article from the New York Times.

When something is not "officially" legal, that means that the government can come and arrest you for it.

Which happens, of course.

It is not "officially" legal, but there is still a stigma against invading churches.

It is important for us atheists to support folks in the sanctuary movement when they take personal risks like this to help people.

Here's an old new York Times article that talks about the sanctuary movement.

ACTIVISTS VOW TO CONTINUE AIDING PEOPLE FLEEING CENTRAL AMERICA

By WAYNE KING, Special to the New York Times

Published: January 16, 1985

TUCSON, Ariz., Jan. 15— Despite the indictment of some of their leaders, church groups here and elsewhere said today that they would continue to give sanctuary to Central Americans they consider to be political refugees.

Supporters of the sanctuary movement, reacting to the indictment of 16 people on charges of conspiring to smuggle illegal aliens into the United States, declared they would put the Government ''on trial'' for its policies in Central America and in dealing with aliens.

In addition to the 16 indictments, returned by a Federal grand jury in Phoenix last week and announced Monday in Washington, more than 60 other people, mostly Salvadorans and Guatemalans who entered the United States with help from the sanctuary movement, were arrested over the weekend. Seen

The nationwide crackdown sharply aggravates the conflict between liberal church groups and the Federal Government, which says the aliens are fleeing poverty, not persecution, and do not qualify for political asylum.

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As many as 200 churches around the country are believed to support the movement, which has openly defied the Federal authorities. The Rev. John M. Fife of the Tucson Southside United Presbyterian Church, a central figure in the movement and one of those indicted, vowed to continue assisting Central Americans who seek shelter in this country.

''Whenever the church has been persecuted throughout history,'' he said in an interview today, ''it has strengthened the church, not weakened it. It is clear that our work will change, but we will continue to provide sanctuary to Cental Americans who are fleeing political persecution.''

Mr. Fife was the first to openly make his church a haven for Central Americans, on March 24, 1982. By last spring, despite Government oppostion, the movement had spread to more than 100 churches, chiefly in the Southwest, the Middle West, California and the New York area.

The Government responded by arresting several activists in the movement, including Stacey Ann Merkt, a church worker who was sentenced last June to two years probation for transporting three Salvadorans.

Her case became something of a symbol of religious defiance of the Government, and she gained the support of a number of groups and individuals, including John J. Fitzpatrick, the Roman Catholic Bishop of Brownsville.

Her case became something of a symbol of religious defiance of the Government, and she gained the support of a number of groups and individuals, including John J. Fitzpatrick, the Roman Catholic Bishop of Brownsville.

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In the wake of the much larger set of indictments and arrests over the weekend, the National Council of Churches issued a statement calling the action ''surprising and shocking.''

''The fact that several of those detained are mothers and their children is a demonstration of the tragedy which called the sanctuary movement into being,'' said the Rev. Dr. Arie Brouwer, the general secretary of the Council of Churches, referring to the Central Americans arrested over the weekend.

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Another of those indicted Monday, James Corbett, said the Government ''is basically going to have to put the church in prison'' to stop the sanctuary movement. Mr. Corbett, 51, was the founder of an ''underground railroad'' that began in Tucson in 1981 to bring Central Americans to this country.

''The pattern we see from Washington,'' he said in a telephone interview here, ''is a move to crush the sanctuary movement. They have completely misjudged what this movement is about. We'll continue to do what we can to provide a protective community to Central Americans, and we'll do it just as openly as ever.''

http://www.nytimes.com/1985/01/16/us/activists-vow-to-continue-aiding-people-fleeing-central-america.html