Sanctuary Leaders Assail U.S. for Ousting Central American Refugees

Bitterly denouncing “scandalous policies” of the Reagan Administration, more than 200 U.S. religious leaders pleaded this week for a stop to deportations of Salvadoran and Guatemalan refugees and the jailing of American church workers who try to shelter them.

Bishops rubbed shoulders with refugees, Protestant denomination presidents, a rabbi and an indicted churchwoman in a crowded Methodist chapel Thursday across the street from the Capitol as the group tried to bring attention to the “sanctuary movement” issue.

Reacting strongly to recent arrests of Americans who had given refugees sanctuary in the Southwest--and to convictions of two workers in Texas--the leaders said it was the government that was guilty of violating U.S. law in returning refugees to face the threat of death in their homelands.

The ad hoc group, made up of officials from various religious organizations, presented petitions asking Congress to investigate the government’s conduct and said the Senate will hold hearings on the issue.

Thousands Sent Back

The Reagan Administration, which strongly supports the governments of El Salvador and Guatemala, has sent thousands of refugees back to those countries on grounds that they came to the United States for economic reasons, not out of fear of persecution at home as they claim.

Administration officials defend the indictments of American church workers--and the use of infiltrators with concealed tape recorders--as part of their obligation to pursue people suspected of breaking laws concerning illegal aliens.

However, the church leaders said many of the refugees would appear well-qualified for asylum on the 1980 Refugee Act’s grounds of “persecution or a well-founded fear of persecution” at home.

They said it was an American’s legal right, if not obligation, to protect refugees from conditions of death and terror. And they dismissed U.S. government contentions that things have changed in a nation such as El Salvador.

There may have been “a momentary drop” in Salvadoran assassinations and disappearances “from thousands to hundreds,” said the Rev. Avery Post, president of the United Church of Christ. But he added, “Is that any comfort at all?”

In other comments:

- “Morality is on our side and the law is on our side,” said the Rev. Gustav Schultz, a Lutheran bishop from Berkeley.

- “This damn thing is a moral issue, and the churches will continue to press on it,” said the Rev. James Andrews, top administrative officer of the Presbyterian Church, USA.

- “The law is on the side of the sanctuary congregations,” said Rabbi Irwin Blank, past president of the Synagogue Council of America, comparing the deportations to sending Jews back to Nazi-controlled Europe during World War II.

- The Administration’s “scandalous policy is now beginning to interfere directly with the right of religious congregations to provide humanitarian aid to refugees,” said Bishop Francis Murphy, a Roman Catholic auxiliary bishop from Baltimore.

Schultz said “the plight of the refugees” is most important, but he also protested government action against the church groups, “which we consider an infringement of our First Amendment rights and the free practice of religion.”

A list of signers of letters to congressional leaders asking for investigations included 10 Roman Catholic bishops, 4 Episcopalian bishops, 12 Lutheran bishops from several branches of the denomination, 7 Methodist bishops, top officials from other Protestant denominations, the past president of the Synagogue Council of America and 9 other Jewish rabbis.

By the movement’s count, about 200 U.S. churches and synagogues are now active in helping Central American refugees--or in transporting them or supporting other churches that do so.