Clergy, Nuns Charged With Alien Smuggling : 16 Persons Indicted in Crackdown on Growing Sanctuary Effort for Central American Refugees

A federal grand jury in Arizona, cracking down on the growing Central American sanctuary movement, has indicted 16 persons--including three nuns, two priests and a minister--on charges of smuggling refugees into the United States.

Government sources here said that the indictment was handed down in Phoenix last Thursday but sealed until Monday so Immigration and Naturalization Service agents in several cities could arrest 65 refugees and hold them as material witnesses.

Church Movement The indictment and the arrests in Phoenix, Tucson, Seattle, Rochester, N.Y., and Philadelphia were the broadest action taken yet by the government against the church-sponsored movement that provides safe harbor for immigrants from violence-racked nations, chiefly El Salvador and Guatemala.

Among those charged were two founders of the sanctuary effort, which now claims to embrace 150 churches, temples and Quaker meetings: the Rev. John M. Fife, a Tucson Presbyterian pastor, and James A. Corbett, a retired Tucson rancher.

The indictment “is in response to an alien smuggling conspiracy,” Don Reno, the assistant U.S. attorney in charge of the prosecution, said.

The major charges include conspiracy, bringing aliens into the United States illegally, transporting illegal aliens, concealing, harboring or shielding them and encouraging or attempting to encourage the entry of illegal aliens. Each of the charges carries maximum punishment of five years’ imprisonment and fines ranging from $2,000 to $10,000.

In addition, the 71-count indictment alleges unlawful entry into the United States and eluding examination or inspection, conviction of which can lead to six months in jail and a $500 fine.

Phillip M. Conger, director of the Tucson Ecumenical Council’s task force on Central American activity, also was named as a defendant. Other charges against Conger were dismissed last year when a federal judge ruled that law enforcement agents lacked probable cause when they stopped an automobile in which he was allegedly smuggling refugees.

The crackdown occurred a little over a week before the first national conference on sanctuary, scheduled to be held in Tucson on Jan. 23 and 24.

“We were expecting the government to act against sanctuary,” Corbett said Monday. “We didn’t expect such a massive action.”

Sanctuary proponents contend that providing haven for refugees from political oppression and violence is in compliance with the 1980 Refugee Act, which provides for granting legal asylum to such persons, and with international law.

But the federal government has countered that most of the refugees have fled for economic reasons and thus do not meet the conditions for special entry into the United States.

A. Melvin McDonald, U.S. attorney in Phoenix, said that the indictment resulted from a 10-month investigation by the Immigration and Naturalization Service’s anti-smuggling unit into the sanctuary, or underground railroad, movement.

Fife, in an interview, said his reading of the indictment showed that the government had placed four INS agents in his church in Tucson, “people who represented themselves as church members working with the ministry.” He contended that they were equipped with electronic listening devices to gather information on the movement.

“I’ve always known that in Russia the government put agents in churches to spy on pastors,” Fife said. “It’s a very sad day. I don’t know of any precedent” for such surveillance in the United States.

A Justice Department spokesman refused to comment on Fife’s charge. But the indictment said that a criminal investigator and two confidential informants attended a meeting last Aug. 27 at Fife’s Southside United Presbyterian Church at which Fife, Conger and Corbett allegedly discussed past, present and future transporting and harboring of illegal refugees.

Times Staff Writer Marjorie Miller in San Diego contributed to this story.