Jack Clancey

After years of courageous action and legal battles to protect the lives and rights of refugees from El Salvador and Guatemala, Christians who had organized a sanctuary movement gathered on December 19, 1990 to celebrate a "victory" - the decision by the United States government to stop all deportations of Salvadorians and Guatemalans. As with all movements, the sanctuary movement began when one person, later supported by friends, decided that action must be taken to help refugees who were being sent back to countries where the violation of human rights was common and murder of suspected supporters of those opposing the government were frequently murdered.

Jim Corbett, a Quaker who worked as a rancher along the U.S. - Mexico border sought legal assistance for a Salvadoran refugee who was determined by the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS). When he returned to the camp with a lawyer he was informed by INS officials that the refugee, and several others, had been moved and that the lawyer would not be told of their whereabouts. Corbett later learned that INS officials ripped up forms that were others, had been moved and that the lawyer would not be told of their whereabouts. Corbett later learned that INS officials ripped up forms that were meant to authorize legal representation for the refugees.

Corbett and some friends applied for and received a court injunction that allowed them to visit and assist refugees in a detention camp. Corbett converted his garage to allow 20 refugees to stay there while awaiting rulings on their political asylum applications.

During the period the State Department routinely urged INS judges not to grant asylum to refugees from El Salvador and Guatemala - countries seen as allies by the then government of the U.S. However Corbett and others decided that the people really were refugees and that if the government could not or would not grant them refugee status they would take the initiative and find a way to offer protection to people in need.

On the second anniversary of the assassination of El Salvador Archbishop Oscar Romero, March 24, 1982, the Southside Presbyterian Church in Tucson Arizona, declared itself a sanctuary for undocumented refugees.

After years of harassment from government officials, a federal grand jury in January 1985 handed down a 71-count indictment against 16 people, including two priests, three nuns, Rev. John Fife, who is the pastor of Southside Church and Corbett. The charges included conspiracy, smuggling, harboring and otherwise aiding "illegal aliens."

In 1986, after a six month trial eight of the sanctuary workers were convicted; Corbett was acquitted. Six of the defendants, including Rev. Fife, were sentenced to five years of probation; three received three years.

However, by that time the sanctuary movement had become a national movement, with hundreds of churches throughout the country offering sanctuary to refugees. It was not a passive movement, but designed to invite parishioners to actively debate on a decision for the church to violate the law of the government by obeying the natural law of offering hospitality to a refugee and God's law of welcoming a stranger in need.

Over the years newspapers carried photos of long caravans of cars carrying refugees from the Texas border to Midwest and Northeast churches. In addition many individuals offered their homes as places of sanctuary for the refugees, many of whose parents, spouses, children, brothers and sisters had been killed.

Citizens had heard what their government had said; they listened to the stories of individual refugees and listened to their consciences and decided that they had to offer hospitality to people in need even if their government had declared such actions a crime.

In the end the U.S. government, as all governments much eventually do, listened to the actions and demands of its citizens. The U.S. government changed its policy because first one person, then a few others decided that the policy was wrong and should be changed. That first powerless drop of opposition gradually became a flood and the government decided to accept and join the flow of water that was moving to protect the basic rights of genuine refugees.