Is sanctuary legal? Faith leaders find answers in the Bible – Annenberg Media

The church smells like paint. The lights are off in the nave and its pastor stands solemnly in the shadowy, expansive room.
President Donald Trump has unleashed U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement on a mission to expel millions of largely Latino immigrants from the country. But, inside this Pentecostal church, construction workers are remodeling a living space that can provide 10 undocumented people with sanctuary.
“There’s always this difference on whether sanctuary is legal or not, whether it’s civil disobedience or civil initiative,” Lloyd Barba, an assistant professor of religion at Amherst College, said. “This goes back to the 1980s, where they ask a similar kind of question: Is it within their First Amendment right to do so?”
In the 1980s, United States churches spearheaded the sanctuary movement after President Ronald Reagan’s refusal to grant asylum to Guatemalan and Salvadoran refugees in Arizona who fled civil wars orchestrated by regimes that Reagan’s administrations supported. Faith leaders — leaning on the tradition of sanctuary that originated in Europe during the 4th century — opened their church doors to the refugees.
Years later, the movement led to broadened protections for immigrants and the establishment of Temporary Protected Status (TPS), which allows refugees to live and work in the U.S. The sanctuary movement is reemerging, and so are its challengers.
Within hours of his return to the White House, Trump targeted immigrants in a series of executive orders and challenged the longstanding role of the church in protecting immigrants by repealing the “sensitive locations” memo. The Department of Homeland Security now has a green light to target schools and churches.
Jennifer Gutierrez, the executive director of Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice (CLUE) believes that the purpose of the repeal is to strike fear into the immigrant community, who are already struggling with many other difficulties in their lives. This emotional turmoil is at the center of a federal lawsuit against Trump by a group of Quakers who claim that ICE’s actions will infringe on their First Amendment right to religious liberty.
Arguments for religious liberty have been marked by controversy. Some Christians have used the religious liberty argument to advance legislation against gay marriage and abortion. If the First Amendment is reinterpreted to include sanctuary as a religious right, it may open the door to more faith-based legislation challenges.
Even though many churches are standing defiantly as beacons of hope for immigrants across the country, fear has also struck many pastors. Trump is threatening to prosecute people who protect immigrants from deportation. For this reason, and to protect the immigrants he’s helping, the pastor who’s remodeling his church’s sanctuary space asked to use the alias “Hernandez” to remain anonymous.
Rev. Hernandez, a man of short stature, said in his baritone voice that his church pooled together almost $5,000 to remodel a room that previously housed undocumented immigrants from countries like Guatemala. Since the disastrous Los Angeles wildfires, Hernandez is also rebuilding his stock of clothing and toiletries, which he distributed to victims.
Hernandez, who immigrated from Durango, Mexico, and labored as a farmworker for some time, said his faith inspires him to protect immigrants. His entirely Latino congregation of 250 families endured Trump’s first presidency, but now they’re more fearful.
Since Trump’s return, Hernandez has increased security measures in his church. Church workers monitor the perimeter and ask visitors to sign in before entering. When Hernandez formed a support group after a recent Sunday service, about 45 families joined.
“I had never seen this group…with so much fear in their eyes,” Hernandez said. “Every word I said…it was like they were searching for hope.”
Thousands have already been arrested in cities like Chicago, New York and LA, according to posts shared by ICE on X. On Jan. 31, ICE said on X that they arrested 864 people and lodged 621 detainers. ICE is conducting these raids alongside other federal agencies, including the Drug Enforcement Administration and the FBI. In LA, the extent of the DEA’s involvement in deportation raids has not been confirmed, but the agency has made several posts on Instagram about its collaboration with ICE in LA County.
For Gutierrez, the work that she’s doing at CLUE and the work that pastors are doing to provide sanctuary to immigrants is just another example of nonviolent resistance exemplified first by Jesus Christ. Even though the current administration bases many of its legislative arguments in Christianity, Gutierrez is not interested in merging religion with the state.
“I think it’s very important for church and state to remain separate, I am not interested in the United States becoming a Christian nation,” Gutierrez said. “I think it’s very important for people of faith to be able to critique the government.”
The work Hernandez is doing runs counter to the government’s agenda, but he doesn’t call himself an activist. He spearheads multiple nonprofits and is part of a coalition of pastors that are providing the community with workshops to learn their rights in case of an interaction with ICE. He frequently advocates for his Latino congregation in conversations with government officials.
But he doesn’t undertake this work because he’s an activist. He does it because he’s a pastor.
“I’m not God, but I’m connected to a few organizations,” Hernandez said. “That’s what I mean when I say I can help people.”
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