CALIFORNIA | LOCAL
June 2, 2007 | Louis Sahagun, Times Staff Writer
Sanctuary, in antiquity the practice of providing refuge in a sacred place, has been revived in a rather dramatic fashion by an undocumented Mexican cleaning woman trying to evade deportation by holing up in a Chicago church. Elvira Arellano, 32, said she invoked the ancient right of sanctuary in a desperate effort to avoid being separated from her 7-year-old son, Saul, an American citizen. That was nine months and 18 days ago.
CALIFORNIA | LOCAL
May 9, 2007 | Louis Sahagun, Times Staff Writer
A graphic designer, a gardener, a religious icon salesman, a busboy, a maintenance worker -- each of them facing deportation and separation from their families. These are the faces of the New Sanctuary Movement, which launches today with a goal of underlining the need for making immigration law more humane and curtailing immigration raids that have torn apart hundreds of families nationwide.
CALIFORNIA | LOCAL
March 23, 2007 | Louis Sahagun, Times Staff Writer
Construction crews at Our Lady Queen of Angels are putting the finishing touches on a controversial new addition to the historic downtown Los Angeles church: living quarters in which to harbor an immigrant family facing deportation.
NATIONAL
November 24, 2006 | P.J. Huffstutter, Times Staff Writer
Three months ago, Elvira Arellano and her son Saul walked into the Adalberto United Methodist Church with nothing but the clothing they were wearing and a plan: to hide in the church's second-story apartment until the U.S. government granted her permission to stay in this country. Elvira, a Mexican immigrant, and Saul, who was born in the United States, also had an unusual cheerleader in their defiance of the federal government: the city of Chicago.
NEWS
December 19, 2000 | KEN ELLINGWOOD, TIMES STAFF WRITER
Disturbed by deaths among Mexican migrants crossing illegally into southern Arizona, church leaders and self-styled good Samaritans have begun offering a range of aid to immigrants--at times breaking the law to carry out what they see as acts of mercy.
NEWS
March 31, 1989 | KIM MURPHY, Times Staff Writer
In a decision that supporters predicted will drive the sanctuary movement further underground, a federal appeals court Thursday upheld the convictions of eight Arizona church workers for helping Central Americans enter the United States illegally Holding that sanctuary workers are not shielded from criminal prosecution by their religious beliefs, the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals said such protections "cannot escape the government's overriding interest in policing its borders."