This is the second time this Chicago area church has allowed an illegal immigrant sanctuary. Now, I don't want to get into a "immigrant deportation talk" because my point is purely to focus on the religious aspect; An illegal immigrant is caught working here, they panic and run to the church for protection. Either they are truly religious and feel that they need protection of the church OR they are opportunistic and "use" the church due to the protection religion, specifically christianity, tends to receive. I would guess the latter but I have no real proof of such a statement. Here is the Article site: http://www.methodsreporter.com/2008/01/30/seeking-sanctuary/

And here is the article:

Is seeking sanctuary the answer for illegal immigrants?

MEDILL NEWS SERVICE

For the second time, Adalberto United Methodist Church in Humboldt Park is in the middle of the immigration debate after offering sanctuary to an illegal immigrant.

Flor Crisostomo, who left her three children in Mexico seven years ago to seek better wages, was arrested in a 2006 raid at IFCO Systems on the Chicago’s South Side. She was supposed to report for deportation Monday. Instead, she asked the church for help.

“I am not leaving,” Crisostomo said in Spanish at a news conference at the church on Monday.

At a symposium on the immigration issue Tuesday at Loyola University Chicago’s law school, some speakers discussed the reasons why churches offer a place for illegal immigrants to escape deportation. The concept of sanctuary is centuries old.

“Faith communities think there are some laws that should not be enforced because they are unjust and broken laws,” said Jeanne Butterfield, executive director for the Washington, D.C.-based American Immigration Lawyers Association. “The whole faith-community idea of civil disobedience is reflected in that. Obviously [offering sanctuary] is not a solution, but it highlights the problem.”

Rev. Walter Coleman, pastor of Adalberto United Methodist, said sanctuary is not a political process. Rather, it is a metaphorical and physical place in which Christians bear witness.

“For those who are willing to come forward, the church provides space in which this witness can be made,” he said.

But offering sanctuary is not without consequences, according to Butterfield.

“It can invite backlash,” she said. “People are accused of being complicit in breaking the law. I think they can be effective in highlighting that the laws are broken, but sanctuary is not a solution.”

Gail Montenegro, spokeswoman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement office in Chicago, said in a statement that the government has given Crisostomo time to return on her own since her arrest in 2006. But she “has chosen to continue to violate our nation’s immigration laws and the judge’s orders and is currently considered to be an immigration fugitive.”

For Coleman and other members of faith communities, offering sanctuary is also a matter of living out a Christian mission.

“It is unacceptable before God that this country should maintain a permanent underclass of 12 million people,” Coleman said. “. Where governments fail, then faith must stand apart.”

Crisostomo said she has no plans to leave the church.

“I am taking a stand of civil disobedience to make America see what they are doing,” said Crisostomo, reading in Spanish from a prepared statement.

Montenegro said Crisostomo will be taken into custody “at an appropriate time and place with consideration given to the safety of all involved.”

Crisostomo is the second illegal immigrant the Humboldt Park church has housed. Elvira Arellano and her son, Saul, were granted sanctuary in 2006. Arellano, who was listening on the phone during Crisostomo’s statement, was deported in August after traveling to Los Angeles.