'80s sanctuary leader calls for new local role

By Stephanie Innes
ARIZONA DAILY STAR
1995 Star photo

No local churches have officially joined a new national sanctuary movement to shelter illegal entrants, but the leader of a similar movement that started in Tucson in the 1980s says the religious community needs to consider it.

"Nursing moms are being deported, people are being picked up on the street and immediate family members are disappearing (back to their countries). The church needs to stand up and say this is a gross violation of human rights," said the Rev. John Fife, retired pastor of Southside Presbyterian Church.

In 1986, Fife was one of eight people — including a Catholic priest and a nun — convicted for their involvement with the Sanctuary Movement, which he co-founded. The movement illegally brought Central Americans into the United States. Supporters of the movement said the refugees faced persecution and death squads in their home countries, while critics said many were just seeking jobs.

"The integrity of family is essential to all of us and to our communities and churches," Fife said. "The inability of Congress and the president to arrive at a workable solution to the set of immigration questions we've faced for too long means the church has to provide not only a witness in terms of words, but needs to act."

For now, no Tucson churches have officially joined a new national effort to protect illegal entrants from deportation by offering their buildings as a sanctuary. Religious leaders across the nation are pressuring Congress to reform the nation's immigration laws.

So far churches in five major cities — Los Angeles, San Diego, Seattle, Chicago and New York — plan to assist illegal entrants with court proceedings, as well as prepare to house them in churches if authorities attempt to deport them.