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 Churches in Chicago and the Arizona cities of Phoenix and Tucson
have begun sheltering immigrants, and organizers say the plan is
eventually to include some 24 churches or synagogues in 10 cities.
"Sanctuary is really an act of civil disobedience to say the laws we
have on the books are unjust," said Peter Pedemonti, a
Philadelphia-based coordinator of what its members call the New
Sanctuary Movement.
"The target is President (Barack) Obama, to get him to act now."
Obama has delayed promised executive action on immigration until
after November's congressional elections. Republican critics of
immigration reform have denounced as "amnesty" any effort to provide
a path to citizenship for the 11 million undocumented immigrants in
the United States. In Philadelphia, both the Philadelphia Praise
Center, an Indonesian Mennonite Church, and a Jewish community
group, Tikkun Olam Chavura, hope to host migrants in the next month,
organizers said.
 Coordinators said a further 60 congregations nationwide would form a
support network to provide services ranging from delivering food to
keeping sheltered immigrants company.
"We have a 325-year history of being welcoming to strangers," said
Amy Yoder McGloughlin, pastor of Germantown Mennonite Church, which
will offer support to the hosting congregations. "It's important to
continue that legacy."
Leaders of the movement said they chose some candidates because they
exemplified a category of undocumented immigrant made a low priority
in 2011 by the then-director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement,
John Morton.
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In a memo, Morton offered guidance in the use of "prosecutorial
discretion" and listed attributes including long-standing community
ties, being a caretaker of minors, and lack of criminal history,
that made a case a low priority.
Organizers offer sanctuary in churches because federal guidelines
prohibit arrests in sensitive areas unless there is a threat to
public safety or national security.
Francisco Perez Cordova, a Tucson construction worker who has lived
in Arizona since 1996 and has five American children, will join the
handful of people in sanctuary nationwide if he moves into a Tucson
church on Thursday as planned.
"Perez Cordova has no criminal history and squarely fits ICE's own
criteria as a low priority," said Sarah Launius of Southside
Presbyterian Church.
(Reporting by Daniel Kelley; Additional reporting by Bradley Poole
in Tucson, Ariz., Editing by Daniel Wallis and Peter Cooney)
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