Phoenix churches may revive sanctuary

By DANIEL GONZÁLEZ

Published: 04.02.2007

Several Phoenix congregations are considering sheltering illegal immigrants and their families as part of a new sanctuary movement started nationwide in response to a rise in deportations and work raids by the federal government.

Other faith-based groups plan to hold educational forums and other activities to press for immigration law changes as part of the movement.

"We are diminishing ourselves when we stand by and watch (deportations) happen to others and do nothing," said the Rev. Trina Zelle.

She is coordinating the movement in Arizona as part of Interfaith Worker Justice.

She declined to name the congregations or say how many plan to participate until final commitments are made.

There is a distinction between today's illegal immigrants, most of whom came to the U.S. for economic reasons, and the Central Americans fleeing death squads, torture and civil war in the 1980s, said John Fife, retired pastor of Southside Presbyterian Church in Tucson.

Not only has political correctness invaded our society, now it dilutes and pollutes the Gospel. This is not an extension of the kindness of God but a political statement which should disqualify these churches from being tax-exempt under the IRS code. Fife states that these Mexicans are not coming across because of persecution of their faith or because of a dictatorial regime that is massacring the masses. They just want to make more money and rather that organize and fight for reform in their own country, they violate the laws and sovereignty of our nation. Fife whines that these illegals are separated from their families and this is true. But it is a separation that they chose unlike what the Nazis did or other regimes in wanting to demoralize the people. These Mexicans chose of their own free will to leave their families just so they could make more money. It is not even that they were too poor to provide for their own.

According to a Pew Hispanic Center Study:

The vast majority of undocumented migrants from Mexico were gainfully employed before they left for the United States. Thus, failure to find work at home does not seem to be the primary reason that the estimated 6.3 million undocumented migrants from Mexico have come to the U.S.

The threat of separation is of their own making. It is the same threat that a drug dealer encounters when selling illegal drugs or a thief when stealing or a drunk when he gets behind the wheel of a car - the threat of facing the consequences of violating the law! -mm