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What is the New Sanctuary Movement in Champaign-Urbana?
Over the summer of 2007, organizations and individuals in Champaign-Urbana came together to participate in the New Sanctuary Movement. We are united in opposing the current series of raids and ensuing deportations across the country, and we agree to call for an end to these practices as they separate children from their families until our broken immigration system is fixed.
Our goals are:
• To protect immigrant workers and their families from unjust deportation
• To change the public debate
• To awaken the moral imagination of our community
• To make visible immigrant workers and families as children of GodThe New Sanctuary Movement in Champaign-Urbana is part of the national coalition.
New Sanctuary Movement Pledge
The New Sanctuary Movement is a national coalition of interfaith religious leaders and participating congregations, called by our faith to respond actively and publicly to the suffering of our immigrant brothers and sisters residing in the United States.
We acknowledge that the large-scale immigration of workers and their families to the United States is a complex historical, global and economic phenomenon that has many causes and does not lend itself to simplistic or purely reactive public policy solutions.
We stand together in our faith that everyone, regardless of national origin, has basic common rights, including but not limited to: 1) livelihood; 2) family unity; and 3) physical and emotional safety. We witness the violation of these rights under current immigration policy, particularly in the separation of children from their parents due to unjust deportations, and in the exploitation of immigrant workers. We are deeply grieved by the violence done to families through immigration raids. We cannot in good conscience ignore such suffering and injustice.
Therefore, We Covenant To:
• Take a public, moral stand for immigrants’ rights
• Reveal, through education and advocacy, the actual suffering of immigrant workers and families under current and proposed legislation
• Protect immigrants against hate, workplace discrimination, and unjust deportation
Building On A PowerFul Tradition
In the early 1980's, thousands of Central American refugeespoured into the United States, fleeing life-threatening repression and extensive human rights violations by their governments.
At the time, federal immigration policy would have denied the majority political asylum simply because their governments were allies of the U.S. Many of these refugees had actively participated in the liberation theology movement and naturally sought protection from congregations.
Many Catholic, Protestant and Jewish congregations and temples responded positively -- offering these refugees social services and advocacy support as well as engaging actively in efforts to change federal immigration policy. These congregations, united under the banner of the Sanctuary Movement, also pledged that they would not reveal the identities of these refugees, even if they were arrested or jailed for doing so.
The Sanctuary Movement was ultimately successful both in changing national policy and in protecting tens of thousands of individuals and families, enabling them to start a new life in the U.S.
Now, over 25 years later, religious leaders across a broad spectrum of denominations from 10 states are coming together to begin a New Sanctuary Movement to accompany and protect immigrant families who are facing the violation of their human rights in the form of hatred, workplace discrimination and unjust deportation. We welcome religious leaders, congregations and faith-based organizations of all denominations to join us in this effort.
