It remains unclear where, how, or when the ramped-up ICE raids predicted by the President’s twitter account will materialize; but in the meantime, churches are taking their members’ fears seriously, and offering sanctuary, solace, and counsel where they can.
In a letter that was distributed to the priests of his cure, Cardinal Blase Cupich, the Archbishop of Chicago stated his desire to stand in solidarity with parishioners throughout the archdiocese who are living in fear of the immigration actions of the Trump Administration.
They have done it before and now they are doing it again. Under the specter of US president-elect Donald Trump’s threats to deport millions of immigrants, both documented and undocumented, churches again are rising up and declaring that they are a place of sanctuary for those fleeing the clutches of the US Department of Homeland Security. Now, as many as 400 US churches and synagogues, across the breadth and height of the nation, are declaring that immigrants may seek refuge in their buildings.
The Revd Robert Jeffries is the senior pastor of 1st Baptist Church, Dallas. 1st Baptist is a Southern Baptist mega-church in downtown Dallas with between
People seeking asylum are living under virtual house arrest in Germany, sheltered by churches from deportation to the war-torn nations they’ve fled. The practice of granting asylum in churches to people fleeing persecution is an old custom which German churches have followed since the 1980s.