The Sanctuary Experience

Book excerpt: During the 1980's, citizens of El Salvador and Guatemala fled their countries because of persecution, torture, and death threats. The United States, a signator to the United Nations Protocol on refugees, was legally bound to accept them, but it resisted admitting that the refugees sought anything other than economic betterment. The sanctuary movement was the response of U.S. citizens to a flood of refugees at the Mexican border. The Sanctuary Experience: Voices of the Community is a selection of the recollections of members of the Tucson refugee support group. These were people who put their religious faith and their devotion to justice and compassion foremost in their lives. Through their stories the reader can follow the greater history of sanctuary as well as understand why ordinary people risked jail in order to help refugees from Central America enter the United States. It has favorite tales and funny anecdotes, as well as accounts of very serious, wrenching experiences. These, then, are the stories of the sanctuary community and how it evolved, affected the lives of the refugees, changed the course of U.S. policy, and impacted the lives of sanctuary workers.