It seems as though the word “sanctuary” has been used more in the last two months than in the more than two decades since the end of the original Sanctuary Movement. On January 25, President Trump signed an executive order that would
It seems as though the word “sanctuary” has been used more in the last two months than in the more than two decades since the end of the original Sanctuary Movement. On January 25, President Trump signed an executive order that would punish and withdraw federal funds from any Sanctuary jurisdictions—those states, counties, or cities that indicate that they will not assist Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in identifying and arresting immigrants without legal documents.
The rationale? “Sanctuary jurisdictions across the United States willfully violate Federal law in an attempt to shield aliens from removal from the United States,” the executive order reads. “These jurisdictions have caused immeasurable harm to the American people and to the very fabric of our Republic.” The executive order goes on to say what is required of every jurisdiction in the country: complete obedience to any order that ICE might create, including but not limited to using local police forces as immigration officers.
We have been here before. During the 1980s, the Sanctuary Movement formed to offer protection to undocumented refugees fleeing Central American wars. The Salvadoran government had imposed martial law on its citizens, which in effect marked the beginning of mass killings. Human rights sources estimate that 18,000 to 20,000 people were killed or “disappeared” in 1980 alone. Thousands of Salvadorans fled the violence, coming north through Mexico to the United States. In the fall of 1981, the killing expanded to Guatemala, which led to a similar exodus. Today we are once again witnessing people fleeing violence in Central America and the Middle East and elsewhere in the world.
In July of 1980, more than two dozen Salvadorans who were crossing the brutally arid Sonoran Desert were abandoned by their guides. Thirteen died and the incident made national headlines. When the survivors were brought to Tucson and Phoenix, churches wanting to assist them discovered that the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) was planning to return the refugees to El Salvador without allowing any of them to file for asylum.
The churches thought these refugees should have been protected under the 