Philly church offers sanctuary to immigrants targeted by upcoming raids

The churches have started what is called the Sanctuary Movement.

Thousands of Central American immigrant families not granted asylum in the USA will be deported beginning in January, the Department of Homeland Security has announced. Most are women and children who have sought to escape gang attacks, drug-related violence and brutality by US-backed security services in Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador.

Members of the Sanctuary Movement, a multi-denominational group that has previous experience of sheltering a minimum of ten immigrants who were to be deported over past 18 months, took a stand in the condemnation.

The raids could begin as early as January. Government sources have revealed that the new U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency is an expansion from just targeting individuals to families which have undocumented members.

The proposed deportations have been controversial inside the Obama administration, which has been discussing them for several months.

Churches in the United States have offered their facilities as sanctuary for Central American undocumented immigrants who are being targeted by the Obama administration for deportation.

During a news conference at the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles headquarters, activists vowed to form a “circle of protection” around immigrants, who say their lives would be in danger if they are returned to their native countries.

The organization encompasses about 50 congregations in a dozen US cities, Rev. Alison Harrington, pastor of Southside Presbyterian Church in Tucson told the Washington Post. Harrington also added that the Church opens its doors to every “Joseph and Mary”, and that the gift the church offers is “the gift of sanctuary”. First is the series of court defeats for the Obama administration over the brutal conditions in which Central American women and children have been held at recently opened camps in Arizona and Texas. Democratic presidential candidates, as well as human rights groups, have voiced their disagreement with the plan. ICE reported that of the 235,413 people who were deported, 98 percent met one or more of ICE’s enforcement priorities.

Border Patrol said they’ve caught more than 300,000 people trying to cross into the country illegally, actually reflecting 337,117 apprehensions nationwide.