Summary
The Central American Civil Wars of the 1980s, exacerbated by United States intervention, produced hundreds of thousands of refugees. Fleeing violence and economic disruptions, many of these refugees migrated to the United States, where they had already established migration circuits decades earlier. As the conflicts grew in scope, religious communities throughout the United States noticed an influx of Central American refugees, many of whom needed social services. They also noticed how the Reagan administration denied political asylum to these Central Americans fleeing war. The United States government contended that Central Americans were economic migrants, not refugees.
On March 24, 1982, the Reverend John Fife of Southside Presbyterian Church in Tucson, AZ, and representatives from various churches in the San Francisco Bay Area held press conferences declaring their intention to offer sanctuary to Central American refugees. Driven by religious conviction and past civil rights activism, they partnered with local Central American organizations and launched a nationwide social movement. This partnership produced a capacious movement that went beyond sheltering refugees to include immigration and other social services for refugee communities. The Sanctuary Movement also became a platform for refugees and their allies to denounce the US government’s involvement in the wars and its discriminatory immigration policies.
The Sanctuary Movement culminated in the 1990 ABC settlement, in which the United States government agreed to reopen previously denied political asylum cases and grant Central Americans temporary protected status. The settlement resulted from the decade-long effort by refugees and their allies in the Sanctuary Movement to secure deportation protections.
Source
East Bay Sanctuary Covenant Original Covenant of Sanctuary Adopted in 1982
“The Bay Area has become a place of uncertain refuge for men, women and children who are fleeing for their lives from the vicious and devastating conflict in Central America. Many of these refugees have chosen to leave their country only after witnessing the murder of close friends and relatives.
“The United Nations has declared these people legitimate refugees of war; by every moral and legal standard, they ought to be received as such by the government of the United States. The 1951 United Nations Convention and the 1967 Protocol Agreements on refugees — both signed by the U.S. — established the rights of refugees not to be sent back to their countries of origin. Thus far, however, our government has been unwilling to meet its obligations under these agreements. The refugees among us are consequently threatened with the prospect of deportation back to El Salvador and Guatemala, where they face the likelihood of severe reprisals, perhaps including death.
“This is not the first time religious people have been called to bear witness to our faith in providing sanctuary to refugees branded illegal in their flight from persecution. The slaves who fled north in our own country and the Jews who fled Nazi Germany are but two examples from recent history. We believe the religious community is now being called again to provide sanctuary to the refugees among us.
“Therefore, we join in covenant to provide sanctuary – support, protection, and advocacy – to El Salvadoran and Guatemalan refugees who request safe haven out of fear of persecution upon return to their homeland. We do this out of concern for the welfare of these refugees, regardless of their official immigrant status. We acknowledge that legal consequences may result from our action. We enter this covenant as an act of religious commitment.”
