The Region - News from Sept. 27, 1985

Church leaders, human rights organizations and Central American refugees urged Los Angeles City Council members to declare the city a “sanctuary” for aliens from the strife-torn countries of El Salvador and Guatemala. In the city’s first public hearing on the plight of its Central American refugees, a parade of speakers pressed council members to join the sanctuary movement. “We need to help a substantially large but politically weak and desperately poor refugee group,” said Bishop Oliver Garver, vice president of the Southern California Ecumenical Council, which helps some of the more than 300,000 Central American refugees who have fled to this area.