New Sanctuary Movement

Reflections on a Death Foretold by Juan Carlos Ruiz

Reginald Swilley — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 18:18:29 GMT

Reflections on a Death Foretold
by Juan Carlos Ruiz

Back in August of 2006, Elvira Arellano took sanctuary in her Church. Her decision was discerned and informed in prayer and motivated by her faith and was done as a last recourse to keep her family together. Motivated by this witness, the New Sanctuary Movement was launched the 9th of May 2007 in NY, LA, and Seattle. Since then at least 25 more cities have joined the movement and are planning a launch in the immediate future. The public launching has a twofold purpose: to couch a new language, thus reframing and redefining the issue (more specifically, the dehumanizing terms that are used against our brothers and sisters such as illegal and aliens) and to witness (and resist) the designed system that preys on the most vulnerable among us (as evidenced by legal and judicial industries that have developed around the suffering of our bothers and sisters who continue to be separated by indefinite detention, incarceration and criminalization, tearing our families apart).

We did know that the proposed legislation did not respond to the needs of our two families taking Sanctuary (and the thousands they represent) and, quite the opposite, our families were going to be persecuted with greater intensity should the “Grand Bargain” pass. The bill was clearly determined and driven by economic interests that would have benefited those in power and was evidence of a truncated imagination and abuse of language (dehumanizing and making us look like aliens or illegals). Among the many failed and shortsighted provisions under the killed legislation was the Guest Worker program, which would have documented data and records from our recent history and pointed to the fact that our workers, documented or undocumented, would have been more vulnerable to abuses by the employers, not guaranteeing their rights and driving a whole class of workers deeper underground. Plus the weak legalization provisions would not help families already trapped in the deportation system. (About four million children are directly affected by these and other inhuman measures).

It is time to sober up and take stock of where we are. We, as immigrants and those who are taking our cause as theirs, need to enlarge our consciousness, to root ourselves in our own history. Why are we here? What do we do so that our hearts do not harden in the face of constant waves of hatred and racism? What are the larger questions to which we need to be attentive? We often fail as individuals to see the causes of our displacement as we, as members of groups and movements, dwell on the effects and forget the roots of our plights.

This morning, as I was dressing, I read the label of my guayabera: Made in Mexico. Then I took some tea from India and some onions from the fields of California. A stream of images hit me as a wave: faces wrinkled, sweaty, all colors, toiling away under the sun, locked up on sweatshops, maquilladoras alongside the border, all on the blood of people of the south and people of color. Before I opened the door, a stream of unnamed people had given me a hand to walk into the real world. The words of the great prophet of our times streamed into my ears: “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly”(Martin Luther King Jr.).

Another voice, exacting, demanding, conjuring a hearing emerges: It is time to act. Not react. It is time to propose a change in the status quo. We cannot wait for new elections. Our families continue to be torn apart. Our government insists on invading other countries and stealing and misusing our resources in the name of democracy. The time to act and organize--and to act and to organize more--is now.

Thus the question is incisive and needs our answer: What can we bring to the table to usher in the light of a new day?

Un Llamado a la Santidad - Rabbi Laurie Coskey Ed.D.

Reginald Swilley — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 20:20:00 GMT

Es un gran placer estar aquí hoy con tanta gente a quien le apasiona la fe y justicia. La parte integral del Nuevo Movimiento de Santuario es: las familias y sus historias. Creemos que las historias de personas y las de sus seres queridos pueden cambiar la faz del dialogo sobre una inmigración justa e integra. Hoy por primera vez voy a contarles una historia sumamente triste de mi propia familia. Es una historia que nunca he contado en público hasta hoy.

Hace 6 años se murió mi abuelita. Yo la adoraba, y más importante, ella me adoraba a mí. Me decía mi preciosa, mi alma, mi corazón, y cuando me portaba mal me decía, criatura. De la Isla de Rodas, mis bisabuelos hablaban solamente español aunque vivieron en los Estados Unidos por más de 50 años.

Después de su muerte, mientras recogíamos la casa, encontramos un retrato de una hermosa joven vestida formalmente como era la costumbre durante los últimos años de 1930. Tenía curiosidad, ¿quién era? La respuesta que me dio mi tío abuelo, el hermano de mi abuelita fue muy trieste.

La foto era la imagen de su prima que se quedo en la Isla de Rodas después de mis bisabuelos inmigraron a los Estados Unidos. Sus papas también intentaron inmigrar a los Estados Unidos durante la Segunda Guerra Mundial y debido a las cuotas, no pudieron inmigrar. Así que su mamá le envió esa foto y le pidió a mi tío abuelo que se casara con ella para salvarla de los Nazis.

Mis bisabuelos no creían que los Nazis llegasen a la Isla de Rodas, en donde los judíos gozaron una vida libre de discriminaciones. Trágicamente, dijeron que NO. En aquella época, mis bisabuelos no creían que podían darle de comer a otra persona y además no querían obligarle a su hijo a casarse con una joven que nunca había conocido. Esta bella joven se murió en los campamentos de concentración junta con el resto de su familia, porque los Nazis sí llegaron a la isla y aniquiló esta comunidad judía dinámica.

La inmigración no es un tópico nuevo para los legisladores de nuestro país. En algunas maneras, la comunidad judía en los Estados Unidos se fortaleció y se unió luchando en contra de la política restringida de inmigración durante la Segunda Guerra Mundial. Demasiado de nuestra gente se murieron porque no se les permitió entrar en este país u otros países

No creo que este ciclo nuevo de reforma abarcará lo suficiente para crear una reforma legislativa íntegra que responde a la realidad de 12 millones de personas que forman la base de nuestras comunidades y economías en todo el país. No creo que la legislación reciente abra el camino para las generaciones futuras de inmigrantes que se ven obligadas a vivir en circunstancias pésimas y que llegan a este país en busca de una vida, dispuestas a hacer sus propios sacrificios y contribuciones.

Lo que sí creo es que nuestra obligación moral y ética como personas de fe: hijos e hijas de Dios, es de luchar ahora y cuando esta lucha haya terminado seguir luchando porque no se mide la justicia por sesiones legislativas. En mi tradición se refiere al pasaje central del Libro de Levítico como El Código de Santidad. Porque si se abre y se dobla exactamente por la mitad el rollo en que está escrito en hebreo los cinco libros de Moisés, se encuentra en medio el capitulo 19 de Levítico.

El pasaje comienza con estas palabras: "Sean santos, porque yo, el Señor su Dios, soy santo." Y a continuación nos dice cómo ser santo incluyendo amando a nuestro prójimo como a nosotros mismos. El Código de Santidad nos instruye explícita y claramente acerca del trato justo del migrante. Antes se nos dijo: "Cuando un extranjero reside entre ustedes en su tierra, no le harás daño. El extranjero que reside entre ustedes será como uno de los ciudadanos, los amarán como a sí mismo, porque ustedes fueron extranjeros en Egipto. Yo el Señor soy su Dios."

Hace unas semanas un grupo de clero se reunieron con los oficiales del ICE para pedirles formalmente que cesaran las redadas en el Condado de San Diego (ICE era la Patrulla Fronteriza). Durante nuestra conversación, uno de los oficiales nos dijo, "la historia juzgará si el camino hacia la residencia legal para 12 millones de inmigrantes actualmente en este país sería un beneficio para nuestra gran nación.

El Rev. Scott Richardson, el Rector de esta Catedral respondió que nosotros tendríamos que contestar a un Voz mas exigente que la de la historia, Dios nos juzgará a cada uno de nosotros y a nuestra nación basada en la manera cómo habíamos tratado a los inmigrantes viviendo entre nosotros. Dios quiere que seamos un pueblo santo. Tanto el Q’ran, como el Antiguo y Nuevo Testamento nos enseñan a respetar la chispa divina en cada persona y no importa en cual lado de la frontera se encendió esta chispa. Este es el camino santo y es cómo nuestro Creador nos juzgará.

Muchos de ustedes tienen historias personales que son profundas y significativas. Algunas son historias de gran valor, de victoria y de bienestar. Por lo tanto decimos AMÉN! Algunos, como yo, tienen historias tristes o trágicas que cuentan el sufrimiento de nuestras familias o de la muerte de otros. Nuestra misión es clara: llegar a ser un pueblo santo, vasos de Dios y reconocer la chispa divina. Hoy exigimos una reforma integra, efectiva y justa. Seguiremos respondiendo al llamado de Dios, al llamado a la santidad hoy, mañana, y pasado mañana por que este llamado no comienza ni terminar con una sesión del Congreso.

¡Qué nuestras historias sean un recuerdo que todavía no hay justicia! ¡Qué nuestras historias nos inspiran a hacer justicia!

Calling us to Holiness - By Rabbi Laurie Coskey

Reginald Swilley — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 20:12:00 GMT

I am happy to be here today with people who care so much about faith and justice, about families and their stories because that’s what the New Sanctuary Movement is all about -- families and their stories. We believe that the stories of real people and their loved ones can change the face of the dialogue around effective and humane immigration reform. I would like to share with you a sad story from my own family. I have not told this story publicly before.

My grandmother died in 2001, just six years ago. I adored her and better yet, she adored me. She called mi preciosa, mi alma, mi corazon, and when I misbehaved, criatura. From the Island of Rhodes, today one of the Greek islands, my great grandparents only spoke Spanish even though they lived in this country for more than 50 years.

Shortly after her death, as we were taking apart her home, we found a picture of a beautiful young woman dressed formally the way that girls dressed in the late 1930s. I was curious as to who she was? I have been haunted by the answer I received from my great uncle, my grandmother’s brother?

The photo captured the picture of their cousin who remained on the Island of Rhodes after my great grandparents immigrated to the US. Her parents too had attempted to immigrate to the US during the Second World War and were unable to because of quotas. So her mother sent this photo and requested that my great uncle marry his cousin in order to save the girl from the Nazis.

My great grandparents did not believe that the Nazi’s would reach the Island of Rhodes, where the Jews had enjoyed a life of freedom from discrimination. I learned that my great grandparents felt that they couldn’t feed another mouth and they didn’t want to force their son to marry a girl he had never met. Tragically, they said NO. She died in the concentration camps together with the rest of her family, because the Nazis did get to the Island of Rhodes and annihilated the vibrant Jewish community there.

Immigration isn’t a new topic for our country’s legislators. In some ways, the Jewish community in the United States became strengthened and cohesive fighting the restrictive immigration policies during the Second World War. Too many of our people perished because they were simply not allowed into this country or others.

I don’t believe that this round of policy reform will go far enough or come close enough to creating humane legislation that responds to the reality of 12 million people who create the foundation of our communities and economies all over this country. I do not see that the legislation proposed paves the way for future generations of immigrants forced to leave dire circumstances and come to this country looking for a better life, willing to make their own sacrifices and contributions.

I do believe that it is our moral and ethical obligation as people of faith, and children of God, to fight this fight -- and when it’s finished, to fight it again because justice is not measured by legislative sessions. In my tradition we call the central passage in the book of Leviticus the Holiness Code. Because if the scroll on which we have written in Hebrew the five books of Moses is unrolled and folded right in half, Leviticus 19 is right in the middle. The passage begins, You shall be holy because I the Lord your God am holy and then it tells us how to be holy including to love our neighbor as ourselves.

The holiness code instructs us explicitly and clearly about just treatment for immigrants. We learn: "When a stranger resides with you in your land, you shall not wrong him. The stranger who resides with you shall be to you as one of your citizens, you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt, I the Lord am your God.

Recently a group of clergy leaders were meeting with ICE officials to formally request that they put an end to the raids in San Diego County. (ICE is the old Border Patrol). In the course of the conversation, an ICE officer remarked that only history could judge whether a path toward legal residency for 12 million immigrants currently in the country would benefit our great nation. Rev. Scott Richardson the Dean of this Cathedral respectfully replied that we would have to answer to a voice more demanding than that of history, that God would judge each of us and our nation based on how we treated the immigrants living among us. God expects us to be holy people. The Koran, The Old and New Testaments teach us to respect the spark of the divine in every person no matter on which side of the border that spark was lit. That is the holy path and that is how we will be judged by our Creator.

So many of you have deeply personal stories, that are touching and meaningful. Some of you have stories of great courage, ultimate victory, wholeness and wellbeing. To that we say AMEN. Some of you, like me have sad stories, tragic stories where our families suffered or perhaps even lost their lives.

Our mission is clear, to become holy people, vessels of God and recognize the spark of the divine. Today we call for humane, effective, comprehensive, immigration reform. AND we will continue that clarion call tomorrow and the next day, because our call to holiness doesn’t begin or end with a session of the congress.

May our stories remind us that justice is not yet fulfilled! May our stories move us to justice!

Salvation is coming. Salvation is coming…. By Juan Carlos Ruiz

Reginald Swilley — Sat, 26 May 2007 19:15:56 GMT

That is the buzz in the media as power players contemplate the fate of twelve million plus immigrants - undocumented and documented. Yes, there is a war and it is not being fought only on foreign soil. There is a war in our own backyard against our communities of color, the poor and the immigrant. Here, on the iron, twisted streets of NY, our families who have taken sanctuary have a rather somber view of things: the supposed immigration reform (a compromise of a compromise) does not solve their plight. The presidential proposal does not provide any legal relief in their deportation proceedings nor does it take into consideration the consequences and impact on their children’s psyches. In fact, the great majority who live in the shadows will, once again, be plunged deeper and deeper underground.

Certainly, one reality is clear: the evident disconnect of the politicians from those whose welfare and voice they represent. The bill, which is portrayed as granting amnesty, is riddled with fundamental views and assumptions. For decades the rights of workers, whether legal or undocumented, have been eroding. There is considerable historical documentation that the guest worker programs enacted and supported by the government are in gross violation of the labor laws. At the end, the compromise serves only the corporations that will benefit from the cheap labor and the void of human rights created by the "amnesty."

Thus we stand, in the words of a poet, Daniel Berrigan…

Some stood and stood and stood.
They were taken for dummies
they were taken for fools
they were taken for being taken in.

Some walked and walked and walked.
They walked the earth
they walked the waters
they walked the air.

Why do you stand?
they were asked, and
why do you walk?

Because of the children, they said, and
because of the heart,
and because of the bread

Because
the cause
is the heart’s beat
and the children born
and the risen bread.

Rallying the Faithful - Kim Bobo, Interfaith Worker Justice

Reginald Swilley — Fri, 11 May 2007 18:11:23 GMT

On May 1, I and most of the IWJ staff and workers center leadership joined the immigrant rights march in Chicago, which the papers said drew 150,000 (of course as organizers we always believe there were twice as many folks). It was a gorgeous sunny day for a march, much preferred to the January outdoor prayer vigils in front of companies.

After the march, I dashed to my church for a meeting. I apologized for being a bit sweaty and said I had come from the march. One of the participants asked, "Oh, was there a march against Darfur?" Others asked, "What march?"

Shame on me for not mobilizing folks at my own congregation to participate. But as I reflect on the march and the overall fight for immigration reform, I am concerned that we are not tapping the U.S. public's moral imagination and core values of fairness. Not only do folks not understand that if we don't protect immigrant workers, working conditions for all workers will be driven down, but vast numbers of non-immigrants don't even know that rallies drawing over 150,000 people are occurring.

As the recipient of quite a few hate emails over the question of immigration reform, I am well aware that feelings run high and that we are a quite divided nation, even within our congregations. Congregations that have lots of immigrants are very engaged in the issue, and national religious leaders have made strong statements in support of immigration reform. Congregations with few immigrants are generally disengaged. Many, like folks in my own congregation, don't even know rallies shutting down downtown are happening.

I'm excited about leadership from immigrant congregations and immigrant congregations, but I'm also concerned about how we collectively do a better job reaching out to all congregations about the need for a comprehensive and fair immigration policy. The New Sanctuary Movement has great potential to engage more congregations and discuss issues in the public area. I'd love to hear your thoughts on how we do a better job engaging non-immigrant congregations on these issues.