Sanctuary’s Co-Founder Gets Probation

TUCSON, Ariz. — The Rev. John Fife, who helped found the Sanctuary Movement to aid Central American refugees, was sentenced today to probation, the same penalty handed down to five of his followers on Tuesday.

U.S. District Judge Earl Carroll sentenced Fife, 46, a Presbyterian minister, to concurrent terms of five years’ probation on each of three counts.

“I had a sacred duty to God and to my neighbor to save any tortured human life,” Fife told the judge.

Another clergyman, the Rev. Anthony Clark, 37, a Roman Catholic priest from Nogales, Sonora, was sentenced to three years’ probation.

‘Beg for Mercy’

The last of the eight Sanctuary Movement members convicted May 1 in the government’s case against the alien-smuggling movement faced sentencing later today.

In a 45-minute address to the court, Fife cited the Bill of Rights, the Geneva Convention and international law as reasons why refugees deserve assistance.