‘We Have No Choice’ but to Carry On : Sanctuary Leaders Vow Fight Despite Convictions

The felony convictions of eight sanctuary movement activists in Tucson will not slow the nationwide church-backed commitment to provide havens for Central American refugees, according to sanctuary workers and religious leaders around the country.

In Southern California, where sanctuary supporters met Saturday in a Los Angeles church to plan strategy in light of Thursday’s federal jury convictions, leaders vowed to continue to help smuggle refugees into the United States.

“The movement is not going to stop,” said defendant Peggy Hutchison, 31, a Methodist lay worker from Tucson. “As long as that exodus, violence and torture in Central America continue, we have no choice.”

Hutchison, who was found guilty of one count of conspiracy, received a standing ovation at the convocation, where she was introduced as a “convicted felon.”

“We are the people to provide sanctuary for those fleeing the blood and terror in Central America,” the gathering of about 100 supporters said in unison during the interfaith service. “We provide a safe place and cry: ‘Basta! Enough!’ ”

30 Charges Filed

The jury in Arizona deliberated more than 47 hours over nine days on 30 felony and misdemeanor charges against 11 defendants, who included a Presbyterian minister, two Roman Catholic priests, a nun and seven church lay workers.

Six were found guilty of conspiring to smuggle illegal aliens, mostly from El Salvador and Guatemala, into the United States. One other church worker was convicted of transporting illegal aliens and another was convicted of concealing or harboring illegal aliens. The remaining three defendants were cleared of all charges.

Defense lawyers said they would appeal the convictions.

Sanctuary leaders claim that the U.S. government has violated its own refugee laws by denying asylum to most Central Americans and ordering them deported if they reach the U.S. border. Immigration officials contend, however, that the illegal aliens are mainly seeking better jobs rather than fleeing political persecution.

Since the church workers were indicted 17 months ago, the sanctuary movement has almost doubled in size to 302 churches, synagogues, meeting houses and religious orders nationwide, according to Gloria Kinsler, sanctuary coordinator for the Southern California Ecumenical Council. Forty of the organizations are in Southern California. Nearly 20 cities and the state of New Mexico have also symbolically declared themselves sanctuaries.

Disappointed, Not Surprised

Sanctuary leaders indicated disappointment--but not surprise--at the verdicts. They noted that the question of religious motives and whether the U.S. government itself is obeying its own laws were essentially ruled out by the court.

“We know the government spent over $1 million infiltrating churches and hiring paid informants and building a case over a three-year period against a small group of . . . active sanctuary ministers,” said Jo’Ann De Quattro, who chairs the Southern California Interfaith Task Force on Central America.

A statement from the Rev. James E. Andrews, the chief executive of the Presbyterian denomination, noted that the jury attempted to judge the defendants “without adequate information and evidence related to their own religious motivation, to the situations out of which the refugees came, and to U.S. . . . and international law.

The Rev. William Schulz, president of the Unitarian Univeralist Assn. that includes more than 40 “sanctuary congregations,” said the question of whether “the Immigration and Naturalization Service is the vehicle of partisan foreign policy of this Administration . . . is the nub of the whole controversy.”

U.S. Policy Criticized

In New York City, activist minister William Sloane Coffin also criticized U.S. immigration policy for its selectivity.

“No Jews are being sent back to the Soviet Union, thank God, and hardly a Pole has been returned to Poland. Yet the Immigration Service has forcibly repatriated hundreds of Guatemalans to a country where a Lech Walesa wouldn’t last a week,” Coffin told reporters.

Roman Catholic Bishops Jerome J. Hastrich of Gallup, N.M., Manuel D. Moreno of Tucson, and Thomas J. O’Brien of Phoenix said in a joint statement: “It is obvious that several aspects of this case have been handled in a restrictive, legalistic manner that made it difficult for all the issues to be presented and argued fully.”

An editorial in the Arizona Star on Friday was headlined: “A Blow to Justice--Sanctuary Workers Never Got to Present Their Real Defense.” The jury outcome was “a blow to fairness, hope and government ethics,” the newspaper said.