The Ordinary and Extraordinary: Producing Migrant Inclusion and Exclusion in US Sanctuary Movements
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.26522/ssj.v11i1.1081Keywords:
sanctuary, migration, religion, social movements, United StatesAbstract
This article analyzes the Sanctuary Movement for Central Americans and the New Sanctuary Movement, two United States faith-based social movements, to think through the ways in which these pro-immigrant efforts paradoxically render migrants figuratively mute and often excluded from conceptualizations of the nation and its inhabitants even as they advocate for legal inclusion. We examine this tension of inclusion and exclusion through the frequent representation of migrants’ histories and Christianity as extraordinary in the Sanctuary Movement for Central Americans, and migrants’ lives as ordinary in the New Sanctuary Movement. We identify two key processes by which this framing of migrants as extraordinary or ordinary limits the enactment of full social, political, and economic inclusion: (a) public support is principally granted to certain stories, religions, identities, and experiences; and (b) migrants are consistently positioned, and often celebrated, by sanctuary activists as “others.” The discourses of migrants as extraordinary or ordinary effectively generate broad involvement of faith communities in sanctuary work. Yet, as we argue, this framing comes with the cost of limiting activist support only to particular groups of migrants, flattening the performances of migrant identities, and positioning migrants as perpetually exterior to the US. Reliance on discourses of the extraordinary and ordinary, therefore, can truncate opportunities for making legible a range of migration experiences and extending belonging to all migrants, outcomes that arise in contrast to the purported inclusionary goals of the faith-based sanctuary social movements.
References
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Asmar, M. (2015, February 24). A Denver church joins a nationwide movement to provide sanctuary to undocumented immigrations. Westword. Retrieved from www.westword.com/news/a-denver-church-joins-a-nationwide-movement-to-provide-sanctuary-to-undocumented-immigrants-6578160
Bader, E. J. (2014, November 26). New Sanctuary Movement seeks to protect undocumented immigrants. Truthout.org. Retrieved from www.truth-out.org/news/item/27672-new-sanctuary-movement-seeks-to-protect-undocumented-immigrants#
Bagelman, J. (2016). Sanctuary city: A suspended state. New York: Palgrave.
Bau, I. (1985). This ground is holy: Church sanctuary and Central American refugees. New York: Paulist Press.
Bell, K. (2010). The sanctuary movement: How broken immigration policies affect cities. Los Gatos, CA: Smashwords.
Booth, J. A., Wade, C. J., & Walker, T. W. (2010). Understanding Central America (5th Edition). Boulder, CO: Westview Press.
Caminero-Santagelo, M. (2012). The voice of the voiceless: Religious rhetoric, undocumented immigrants, and the New Sanctuary Movement in the United States. In R. Lippert & S. Rehaag (Eds.), Sanctuary practices in international perspectives: Migration, citizenship, and social movements (pp. 92-105). New York: Routledge.
Carro, J. (1989). Municipal and state sanctuary declarations: Innocuous symbolism or improper dictates? Pepperdine Law Review, 16(2), 297-328.
Center for Human Rights and Constitutional Law. (2007). New sanctuary movement legal toolkit. Los Angeles: Center for Human Rights and Constitutional Law.
Chinchilla, N., Hamilton, N., & Loucky, J. (2009). The sanctuary movement and Central American activism in Los Angeles. Latin American Perspectives, 36, 101-126.
Coutin, S. (1993). The culture of protest: Religious activism and the US sanctuary movement. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.
Coutin, S. (2011). Falling outside: Excavating the history of Central American asylum seekers. Law & Social Inquiry, 36(3), 569-596.
Cunningham, H. (1995). God and Caesar at the Rio Grande: Sanctuary and the politics of religion. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.
Crittenden, A. (1988). Sanctuary: A story of American conscience and the law in collision. New York: Weidenfeld & Nicolson.
Davidson, M. (1988). Convictions of the heart: Jim Corbett and the sanctuary movement. Tucson, AZ: University of Arizona Press.
Dickson, C. (2014, November 6). This church is reviving the sanctuary movement to shelter undocumented immigrants from deportation. The Daily Beast. Retrieved from www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/06/11/this-church-is-reviving-the-sanctuary-movement-to-shelter-undocumented-immigrants-from-deportation.html
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Fife, J., Corbett, J., Merkt, S., & Willis-Conger, P. (1987). The sanctuary movement: Conspiracy of compassion. In J. Wallis (Ed.), The rise of Christian conscience: The emergence of a dramatic renewal movement in the church today (pp. 17-29). London: Macmillan.
Golden, R., & McConnell, M. (1986). Sanctuary: The new underground. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books.
Groundswell. (2014a). Ask the department of homeland security: ‘Where’s the discretion? Grant Arturo a stay!’. Groundswell. Retrieved from https://action.groundswell-mvmt.org/petitions/tell-the-obama-administration-save-arturo-from-being-deported?source=facebook-share-button&time=1414081587
Groundswell. (2014b). Tell the Obama administration: Save Rosa from being deported. Groundswell. Retrieved from https://action.groundswell-mvmt.org/petitions/tell-the-obama-administration-save-rosa-from-being-deported
Groundswell. (2016). Tell Chicago ICE: Don’t deport Jose Juan, father of 5. Groundswell. Retrieved from https://action.groundswell-mvmt.org/petitions/tell-chicago-ice-don-t-deport-jose-juan-father-of-5?bucket=&source=twitter-share-button
Hondagneu-Sotelo, P. (2007). Religion and a standpoint theory of immigrant social justice. In P. Hondagneu-Sotelo (Ed.), Religion and social justice for immigrants (pp. 3-15). New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.
Houston, S., & Lawrence-Weilmann, O. (2015). The model migrant and multiculturalism: Analyzing neoliberal logics in US sanctuary legislation. In H. Bauder & C. Matheis (Eds.), Migration policy and practice: Interventions and solutions (pp. 101-126). New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Houston, S. (2016). Sacred squatting: Seeking sanctuary in religious spaces. In S. Chattapadhyay & P. Mudu (Eds.), Migration, squatting, and radical autonomy (pp. 183-188). New York: Routledge.
Irazábal, C., & Dyrness, G. (2010). Promised land? Immigration, religiosity, and space in southern California. Space and Culture, 13, 356-375.
jcfjcjcfjcf. (2011). New Sanctuary Movement with Liliana. Video retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yPKehVGQTvo
Juffer, J. (2009). Compassion and rage: The face of the migrant. South Atlantic Quarterly, 108(1), 219-235.
Kotin, S., Dyrness, G., & Irazábal, C. (2011). Immigration and integration: Religious and political activism for/with immigrants in Los Angeles. Progress in Development Studies, 11(4), 263-284.
Larkman, C. (2016, May 16). A California congregation celebrates sanctuary. United Church of Christ. Retrieved from http://www.ucc.org/news_california_congregation_celebrates_liliana_s_sanctuary_05152016
Lorentzen, R. (1991). Women in the sanctuary movement. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press.
Marfleet, P. (2011). Understanding ‘sanctuary’: Faith and traditions of asylum. Journal of Refugee Studies, 24(3), 440-455.
McCartney, S. (1985, October 24). The governments’ ‘Operation Sojourner.’ The Lewiston Daily Sun, p. 4. Retrieved from https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=Z-cpAAAAIBAJ&sjid=GGgFAAAAIBAJ&pg=1266%2C4599628
McGhee, T. (2015, September 5). In metro Denver illegally, Arturo Garcia worked and lived in shadows. The Denver Post. Retrieved from http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_28766138/metro-denver-illegally-arturo-garcia-worked-and-lived
Nawyn, S. (2007). Welcoming the stranger: Constructing an interfaith ethic of refuge. In P. Hondagneu-Sotelo (Ed.), Religion and social justice for immigrants (pp. 141-156). New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.
New Sanctuary Movement. (2007). New Sanctuary Movement tool kit. Interfaith Movement for Immigrant Justice. Retrieved from http://static1.squarespace.com/static/56948ad40e4c11c98e2e1871/t/56cba7574c2f85d6f124b4c9/1456187224346/New+Sanctuary+Toolkit.pdf
New Sanctuary Movement. (2015). Sanctuary not deportation: A faithful witness to building welcoming communities. Retrieved from http://sanctuary2014.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/SanctuaryToolkit-Updated-Final.docx
Paniagua, T. (2012). Sanctuary movement: 3 decades of activism. Arizona Public Media. Retrieved from https://www.azpm.org/s/8379-sanctuary-movement-3-decades-of-activism/
Prendergast, C. (2015, November 11). Rosa Robles Loreto leaves sanctuary of Tucson church. Arizona Daily Star. Retrieved from http://tucson.com/news/local/rosa-robles-loreto-leaves-sanctuary-of-tucson-church/article_2e0ae3c4-8891-11e5-b998-173e7444fbbf.html
Perla, H., & Coutin, S. (2012). Legacies and origins of the 1980s US-Central American sanctuary movement. In R. Lippert & S. Rehaag (Eds.). Sanctuary practices in international perspectives: Migration, citizenship, and social movements (pp. 73-91). New York: Routledge.
Pirie, S. (1990). The origins of a political trial: The sanctuary movement and political justice. Yale Journal of Law and the Humanities, 2(2), 381-416.
Purcell, E. (Ed.). (2007). The public sanctuary movement, a historical basis of hope: Oral histories, Book I. San Francisco: Sanctuary Oral History Project.
Ridgley, J. (2010). Cities of refuge: Citizenship, legality, and exception in U.S. sanctuary cities (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). University of Toronto, Toronto.
Salvatierra, A. (2007). Sacred refuge: With comprehensive immigration reform off the congressional agenda, the New Sanctuary movement steps into the breach. Sojourners Magazine, 36(9), 12-14.
Sanctuary2014. (2016). Sanctuary movement. Retrieved from www.sanctuary2014.org/
Taracena, M. (2015, June 18). Undocumented father gets another one-year stay, leaving sanctuary at Tucson church. The Range. Retrieved from http://www.tucsonweekly.com/TheRange/archives/2015/06/18/father-re-enters-sanctuary-at-tucson-church-after-one-year-deportation-stay-granted-by-ice-expires
Thayer, K., Rodriguez, M., & Perez Jr., J. (2014, March 23). Immigration protester back at Chicago church that sheltered her. Chicago Tribune. Retrieved from http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/chi-elvira-arellano-immigration-chicago-20140323-story.html
UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees). (2010). Convention and Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees. Geneva: United Nations.
US Immigration and Customs Enforcement. (2011). Policy 10029.2: Enforcement actions at or focused on sensitive locations. Retrieved from https://www.ice.gov/doclib/ero-outreach/pdf/10029.2-policy.pdf
Van Ham, L. (2009). Sanctuary revisited: Central American refugee assistance in the history of church-based immigrant advocacy. Political Theology, 10, 621-645.
Yukich, G. (2013a). One family under god: Immigration policies and progressive religion in America. New York: Oxford University Press.
Yukich, G. (2013b). Constructing the model immigrant: Movement strategy and immigrant deservingness in the New Sanctuary Movement. Social Problems, 60(3), 302-320.
Asmar, M. (2015, February 24). A Denver church joins a nationwide movement to provide sanctuary to undocumented immigrations. Westword. Retrieved from www.westword.com/news/a-denver-church-joins-a-nationwide-movement-to-provide-sanctuary-to-undocumented-immigrants-6578160
Bader, E. J. (2014, November 26). New Sanctuary Movement seeks to protect undocumented immigrants. Truthout.org. Retrieved from www.truth-out.org/news/item/27672-new-sanctuary-movement-seeks-to-protect-undocumented-immigrants#
Bagelman, J. (2016). Sanctuary city: A suspended state. New York: Palgrave.
Bau, I. (1985). This ground is holy: Church sanctuary and Central American refugees. New York: Paulist Press.
Bell, K. (2010). The sanctuary movement: How broken immigration policies affect cities. Los Gatos, CA: Smashwords.
Booth, J. A., Wade, C. J., & Walker, T. W. (2010). Understanding Central America (5th Edition). Boulder, CO: Westview Press.
Caminero-Santagelo, M. (2012). The voice of the voiceless: Religious rhetoric, undocumented immigrants, and the New Sanctuary Movement in the United States. In R. Lippert & S. Rehaag (Eds.), Sanctuary practices in international perspectives: Migration, citizenship, and social movements (pp. 92-105). New York: Routledge.
Carro, J. (1989). Municipal and state sanctuary declarations: Innocuous symbolism or improper dictates? Pepperdine Law Review, 16(2), 297-328.
Center for Human Rights and Constitutional Law. (2007). New sanctuary movement legal toolkit. Los Angeles: Center for Human Rights and Constitutional Law.
Chinchilla, N., Hamilton, N., & Loucky, J. (2009). The sanctuary movement and Central American activism in Los Angeles. Latin American Perspectives, 36, 101-126.
Coutin, S. (1993). The culture of protest: Religious activism and the US sanctuary movement. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.
Coutin, S. (2011). Falling outside: Excavating the history of Central American asylum seekers. Law & Social Inquiry, 36(3), 569-596.
Cunningham, H. (1995). God and Caesar at the Rio Grande: Sanctuary and the politics of religion. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.
Crittenden, A. (1988). Sanctuary: A story of American conscience and the law in collision. New York: Weidenfeld & Nicolson.
Davidson, M. (1988). Convictions of the heart: Jim Corbett and the sanctuary movement. Tucson, AZ: University of Arizona Press.
Dickson, C. (2014, November 6). This church is reviving the sanctuary movement to shelter undocumented immigrants from deportation. The Daily Beast. Retrieved from www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/06/11/this-church-is-reviving-the-sanctuary-movement-to-shelter-undocumented-immigrants-from-deportation.html
Dyrness, G., & Irazábal, C. (2007, September 2). A sanctuary for immigrants. The Los Angeles Times. Retrieved from http://www.latimes.com/opinion/la-op-dyrness2sep02-story.html
Engler, R. (2014, April 1). Elvira Arellano the illegal alien returns to Chicago. American Thinker. Retrieved from http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2014/04/elvira_arellano_the_illegal_alien_returns_to_chicago.html
Fife, J., Corbett, J., Merkt, S., & Willis-Conger, P. (1987). The sanctuary movement: Conspiracy of compassion. In J. Wallis (Ed.), The rise of Christian conscience: The emergence of a dramatic renewal movement in the church today (pp. 17-29). London: Macmillan.
Golden, R., & McConnell, M. (1986). Sanctuary: The new underground. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books.
Groundswell. (2014a). Ask the department of homeland security: ‘Where’s the discretion? Grant Arturo a stay!’. Groundswell. Retrieved from https://action.groundswell-mvmt.org/petitions/tell-the-obama-administration-save-arturo-from-being-deported?source=facebook-share-button&time=1414081587
Groundswell. (2014b). Tell the Obama administration: Save Rosa from being deported. Groundswell. Retrieved from https://action.groundswell-mvmt.org/petitions/tell-the-obama-administration-save-rosa-from-being-deported
Groundswell. (2016). Tell Chicago ICE: Don’t deport Jose Juan, father of 5. Groundswell. Retrieved from https://action.groundswell-mvmt.org/petitions/tell-chicago-ice-don-t-deport-jose-juan-father-of-5?bucket=&source=twitter-share-button
Hondagneu-Sotelo, P. (2007). Religion and a standpoint theory of immigrant social justice. In P. Hondagneu-Sotelo (Ed.), Religion and social justice for immigrants (pp. 3-15). New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.
Houston, S., & Lawrence-Weilmann, O. (2015). The model migrant and multiculturalism: Analyzing neoliberal logics in US sanctuary legislation. In H. Bauder & C. Matheis (Eds.), Migration policy and practice: Interventions and solutions (pp. 101-126). New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Houston, S. (2016). Sacred squatting: Seeking sanctuary in religious spaces. In S. Chattapadhyay & P. Mudu (Eds.), Migration, squatting, and radical autonomy (pp. 183-188). New York: Routledge.
Irazábal, C., & Dyrness, G. (2010). Promised land? Immigration, religiosity, and space in southern California. Space and Culture, 13, 356-375.
jcfjcjcfjcf. (2011). New Sanctuary Movement with Liliana. Video retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yPKehVGQTvo
Juffer, J. (2009). Compassion and rage: The face of the migrant. South Atlantic Quarterly, 108(1), 219-235.
Kotin, S., Dyrness, G., & Irazábal, C. (2011). Immigration and integration: Religious and political activism for/with immigrants in Los Angeles. Progress in Development Studies, 11(4), 263-284.
Larkman, C. (2016, May 16). A California congregation celebrates sanctuary. United Church of Christ. Retrieved from http://www.ucc.org/news_california_congregation_celebrates_liliana_s_sanctuary_05152016
Lorentzen, R. (1991). Women in the sanctuary movement. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press.
Marfleet, P. (2011). Understanding ‘sanctuary’: Faith and traditions of asylum. Journal of Refugee Studies, 24(3), 440-455.
McCartney, S. (1985, October 24). The governments’ ‘Operation Sojourner.’ The Lewiston Daily Sun, p. 4. Retrieved from https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=Z-cpAAAAIBAJ&sjid=GGgFAAAAIBAJ&pg=1266%2C4599628
McGhee, T. (2015, September 5). In metro Denver illegally, Arturo Garcia worked and lived in shadows. The Denver Post. Retrieved from http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_28766138/metro-denver-illegally-arturo-garcia-worked-and-lived
Nawyn, S. (2007). Welcoming the stranger: Constructing an interfaith ethic of refuge. In P. Hondagneu-Sotelo (Ed.), Religion and social justice for immigrants (pp. 141-156). New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.
New Sanctuary Movement. (2007). New Sanctuary Movement tool kit. Interfaith Movement for Immigrant Justice. Retrieved from http://static1.squarespace.com/static/56948ad40e4c11c98e2e1871/t/56cba7574c2f85d6f124b4c9/1456187224346/New+Sanctuary+Toolkit.pdf
New Sanctuary Movement. (2015). Sanctuary not deportation: A faithful witness to building welcoming communities. Retrieved from http://sanctuary2014.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/SanctuaryToolkit-Updated-Final.docx
Paniagua, T. (2012). Sanctuary movement: 3 decades of activism. Arizona Public Media. Retrieved from https://www.azpm.org/s/8379-sanctuary-movement-3-decades-of-activism/
Prendergast, C. (2015, November 11). Rosa Robles Loreto leaves sanctuary of Tucson church. Arizona Daily Star. Retrieved from http://tucson.com/news/local/rosa-robles-loreto-leaves-sanctuary-of-tucson-church/article_2e0ae3c4-8891-11e5-b998-173e7444fbbf.html
Perla, H., & Coutin, S. (2012). Legacies and origins of the 1980s US-Central American sanctuary movement. In R. Lippert & S. Rehaag (Eds.). Sanctuary practices in international perspectives: Migration, citizenship, and social movements (pp. 73-91). New York: Routledge.
Pirie, S. (1990). The origins of a political trial: The sanctuary movement and political justice. Yale Journal of Law and the Humanities, 2(2), 381-416.
Purcell, E. (Ed.). (2007). The public sanctuary movement, a historical basis of hope: Oral histories, Book I. San Francisco: Sanctuary Oral History Project.
Ridgley, J. (2010). Cities of refuge: Citizenship, legality, and exception in U.S. sanctuary cities (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). University of Toronto, Toronto.
Salvatierra, A. (2007). Sacred refuge: With comprehensive immigration reform off the congressional agenda, the New Sanctuary movement steps into the breach. Sojourners Magazine, 36(9), 12-14.
Sanctuary2014. (2016). Sanctuary movement. Retrieved from www.sanctuary2014.org/
Taracena, M. (2015, June 18). Undocumented father gets another one-year stay, leaving sanctuary at Tucson church. The Range. Retrieved from http://www.tucsonweekly.com/TheRange/archives/2015/06/18/father-re-enters-sanctuary-at-tucson-church-after-one-year-deportation-stay-granted-by-ice-expires
Thayer, K., Rodriguez, M., & Perez Jr., J. (2014, March 23). Immigration protester back at Chicago church that sheltered her. Chicago Tribune. Retrieved from http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/chi-elvira-arellano-immigration-chicago-20140323-story.html
UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees). (2010). Convention and Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees. Geneva: United Nations.
US Immigration and Customs Enforcement. (2011). Policy 10029.2: Enforcement actions at or focused on sensitive locations. Retrieved from https://www.ice.gov/doclib/ero-outreach/pdf/10029.2-policy.pdf
Van Ham, L. (2009). Sanctuary revisited: Central American refugee assistance in the history of church-based immigrant advocacy. Political Theology, 10, 621-645.
Yukich, G. (2013a). One family under god: Immigration policies and progressive religion in America. New York: Oxford University Press.
Yukich, G. (2013b). Constructing the model immigrant: Movement strategy and immigrant deservingness in the New Sanctuary Movement. Social Problems, 60(3), 302-320.
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