sanctuary movement
Church-based asylum network
The sanctuary movement refers to organized efforts by religious congregations and communities to shelter and protect refugees or undocumented immigrants from deportation.
The term emerged in the 1980s when American churches harbored Central American refugees, drawing on the ancient tradition of churches as places of asylum.
The movement revived in the 2010s as congregations offered protection to immigrants facing removal: The church joined the sanctuary movement after ICE arrests increased in their neighborhood.
- refugePlace of safety
- asylumShelter from persecution
- safe houseSecret secure refuge
- undergroundBelow ground or countercultural
- migrantsPeople who move elsewhere
churches · activists · harboring · shelter · protection · solidarity · fugitive · border · border crossing · deportation · deportation order · immigration raid · ICE · congregations · faith community · safe · haven · resistance
sanctuary movementimmigration enforcement
Regulating unauthorized entry
mass deportation · deportation policy · nativism · border enforcement · immigration restriction
sanctuary, movement, sanctuaries, movements, sanctum, sanctify, sanctification, sanctified, sanctity