Numerous faith leaders across the U.S. say the immigration crackdown launched by President Donald Trump’s new administration has sown fear within their migrant-friendly congregations. They are pondering ways to resist even in the face of warnings that houses of worship are not off-limits for arrests.
In Portland, Oregon, the Rev. W.J. Mark Knutson, said he plans to offer undocumented migrants sanctuary at Augustana Lutheran Church anyway — just as he did in 2014. A man from El Salvador, wanted for re-entering the United States illegally, took shelter in the church for nearly three months, sleeping under the altar the first few nights.
“Theologically, we’ll stand our ground against the government — an unjust law is no law at all,” Knutson told The Associated Press. “These are sacred spaces.”. In Philadelphia, the Rev. Robin Hynicka, pastor of Arch Street United Methodist Church, said his church is committed to being a “justice seeking, reconciling, sanctuary congregation.”.
During the first Trump administration, that commitment included sheltering an immigrant from deportation while he went through a successful process to obtain a visa. “Our work now is bigger than simply opening the door of the church for one or two people to stay,” Hynicka said. “Sanctuary has to be a value that we extend to one another through our policies, through the laws we enact.”.
Other clergy ministering to undocumented migrants were less specific, though they vowed to continue — and even expand — their support following this week's announcement that federal immigration agencies could make arrests at churches, schools and hospitals, ending existing policies that protected sensitive spaces from enforcement.
