Two Atlanta churches, Clifton Presbyterian and the Atlanta Friends Meeting, a Quaker gathering, have announced that they are public sanctuaries for Central American refugees.

This means that the two Christian communities have joined themselves to a loose network of some 200 churches around the country who have announced publicly that they will shelter refugees from El Salvador, Guatemala and other countries in defiance of current policy by the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service.

That policy currently says that people from El Salvador are economic refugees, not political refugees, and so are not entitled to stay in the United States. Those who are denied political asylum in the United States, which is the vast majority of those seeking asylum, are deported back to their native countries.

However, churches who are a part of the sanctuary movement, which began in Tucson, Arizona in 1982, say that the current U.S. immigration policy toward Salvadorans and Guatemalans is sending refugees back to possible torture and death in their homelands. The churches cite the 1980 Refugee Act which forbids the Attorney General from deporting anyone who has a “well-founded fear of persecution” if returned to his homeland. They also cite the fact that the United Nations has declared all those fleeing El Salvador to be political refugees because of the degree of civil violence that has taken place there in the last six years, killing more than 40,000.

Those who are involved in sanctuary say that Central American refugees do not want to stay in the United States permanently, but want to return home when civil violence subsides in their countries. Because of this, the movement is backing legislation in Congress sponsored by Sen. Dennis DeConcinci (D-Arizona) and Rep. Joe Moakley (D-Massachusetts) that would halt the deportation of Salvadorans for two years while the government investigates what treatment deported Salvadorans receive when they return home.

Sanctuary supporters are seeking “extended voluntary departure status” for Central American refugees, which is not permanent residence in the U.S., but permits them to stay on an extended basis.

In announcing public sanctuary, the members of Clifton Presbyterian Church and the Atlanta Friends risk legal consequences.

At the movement, church leaders say, they have no Central American refugees within their communities, although they said that they have already been helping and sheltering refugees for a year or more privately. Those people have either moved on to other areas, been helped to obtain legal residence in Canada, or disappeared back into the city where they are quietly living as illegals.

In the Southwestern U.S., where churches are most active in the sanctuary movement and where many of those from El Salvador and Guatemala enter the country from Mexico, leaders and volunteers in sanctuary churches have been indicted following a government investigation.

Jack Elder, director of a shelter sponsored by the Diocese of Brownsville, Texas, Casa Oscar Romero, was found guilty in February of five counts of illegally aiding aliens and faces 30 years in prison and $28,000 in fines. In Arizona, 16 people have been indicted, charged with seven felonies and 71 counts. Those indicted include John Fife, the pastor of Southside Presbyterian Church in Tucson where the sanctuary movement began in 1982, volunteer workers, at least one priest in Mexico and several nuns.

Clifton Presbyterian and Atlanta Friends, with their announcement, became the first churches in the South to announce themselves as public sanctuaries. They were given statements of support by about 10 churches and religious groups in the Atlanta area.

Some of the statements of support came from the Christian Council of Metropolitan Atlanta, Central Presbyterian Church, North Decatur Presbyterian Church, the Open Door Community in Atlanta, the New Jewish Agenda, Atlanta Clergy and Laity Concerned, Oakhurst Baptist Church’s Peace and Reconciliation group and the Mennonite Central Committee of Atlanta.

The announcements made by the Quaker group and Clifton Presbyterian came at a press conference Friday, prior to the March 24 anniversary of the assassination of Archbishop Oscar Romero, of San Salvador. Archbishop Romero’s denunciation of the civil violence in El Salvador and his pleas for peace for that torn country have made him an inspiration to those who oppose military aid to El Salvador and particularly to those who are helping refugees from El Salvador.

The press conference at which members of the two communities read their public statements declaring sanctuary was followed by a worship service Sunday night, March 24 at Clifton Presbyterian Church, placing the announcement in the context of faith.