The Washington Times
  • Subscribe
  • RSS
  • Mobile Headlines
  • e-edition
  • E-MAIL ALERTS
  • REGISTER
  • LOG IN
  • E-MAIL ALERTS
  • WELCOME
  • Your Profile
  • Log Out
  • Front Page Image
  • Classifieds
  • Autos
  • Real Estate
  • Jobs
  • Special Sections
  • Customer Service
  • Home
  • News
  • Opinion
    • Editorials
    • Commentary
    • Columns
    • Water Cooler
    • Letters
    • Cartoons
    • Books
  • Sports
  • Culture
    • Home & Living
    • Family & Kids
    • Travel
    • Health
    • Washington Visitors
    • Books
    • Auto
    • TV Listings
    • Movie Listings
    • Death Notices
    • Entertainment
  • Communities
  • Rebate Shopping
    • Stores
    • Coupons
    • Daily Double
    • Promotion
    • How It Works
  • Photos
  • Podcasts
    • About Headlines
    • Audio and Radio
    • America's Morning News
  • Politics

    Voight, tea party groups plan last-minute protest

  • Politics

    CURL: Obama the Innocent stumps for health care

  • Politics

    Key Democrat Boccieri switches to 'yes' on health vote

  • Commentary

    TURNER: Our lawbreaking Congress

  • Energy

    Obama backs plan to legalize illegals

  • World

    Gitmo suspects allowed laptops while in custody

  • Politics

    Health-vote ally Nelson to get new VA hospital for Nebraska

Home » News » Editor Favorites

Thursday, May 29, 2008

Seattle's laws look past immigrants on the run

Rate this story

Average 0.00
after 0 votes
Login or register to rate this story

  • Font Size -+
  • Print
  • Email
  • Comment
  • Tweet this!
  • Share
  • Article
  • Comments ()
  • Click-2-Listen
Please stand by, images loading!
  • Jorge Quiroga, a member of St. Mary's Catholic Church in Seattle, shows off the rectory kitchen, which soon will be used not only by the church's priest, but also by a sanctuary family.
  • Mr. Martinez is fighting his arrest in court because his work permit application is pending. If he loses the case, he and Mrs. Reveles will have to move into St. Matthews.
  • Photographs by Allison Shelley/The Washington Times
Mayre, 7, and Rodrigo Martinez, 4, play inside St. Matthews Episcopal Church in Auburn, Wash., which has helped their family. Mother Maria Reveles supports the family on her small salary after father Rene Martinez was arrested in a raid and lost his job.
  • Pablo Lopez wears an identification wristband at the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma, Wash., where he was held for months after he was pulled over ostensibly because a light was not working in his car.
  • Mr. Lopez was housed along with nearly 1,000 others, all facing immigration violations, at Tacoma detention center. His four sons, all U.S. citizens, have been staying with his brother in California.

More Editor Favorites Stories

  • Voight, tea party groups plan last-minute protest
  • CURL: Obama the Innocent stumps for health care
  • Key Democrat Boccieri switches to 'yes' on health vote
  • TURNER: Our lawbreaking Congress

By Julia Duin

SEATTLE - When a coalition of pro-immigrant church groups kicked off the "new sanctuary" movement on May 9, 2007, Seattle was one of five cities chosen to host a kickoff press conference.

The venue was fortresslike St. Mark's Cathedral, a stone-and-brick building that housed Salvadorans and Nicaraguans during the sanctuary movement of the 1980s.

"What's at the heart of this is that we have 12 million people who've been productive members of our communities," said the Very Rev. Robert Taylor, then dean of Episcopal St. Mark's. "It's not a family value to tear these families apart."

Seattle is one of the most liberal cities in the country on immigration and one of eight cities visited by The Washington Times in its examination of the sanctuary movement - its activists, pastors and the illegal immigrants they are sheltering. The subjects offered firsthand accounts of living on the run, insights into the goals of the movement and spiritually based justifications for flouting U.S. immigration laws.

In 2003, the Seattle City Council adopted an ordinance barring police from checking on the immigration status of people they arrest unless they had reason to think the suspect was guilty of a felony crime.

Washington state has long been a hub for Asian immigrants. The state, particularly its eastern half, is a top agricultural producer, a provider of forest products and a stop on the way to Alaskan salmon canneries - all in need of cheap, unskilled labor.

Maria Elena, an assumed name for a single Mexican mother of two small girls, divides her time between her apartment and a Seattle church that has offered her sanctuary.

Because an abusive former boyfriend lurks about her hometown in El Salvador, going back there is not an option.

In addition, her eldest daughter, 6-year-old Natalia, is profoundly handicapped. Salvadoran doctors had told her mother to seek help overseas, i.e. the United States, because there were no decent facilities in the country. The family briefly lived in Silver Spring, but after the local Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) office ferreted them out, they fled to Seattle. They arrived at the downtown Greyhound station, knowing no one.

"I went to a Presbyterian church where I told a woman my story," Maria Elena said. " 'I guess I'll have to call Immigration,' the woman there told me. So I grabbed my kids and my suitcase and got out of there."

[Get Copyright Permissions] Click here for reprint permissions!
Copyright 2009 The Washington Times, LLC

1234Next »

Post a comment

There are comments on this article, submit your opinion!

Please login or register to post a comment

Top Stories

Most Shared

  1. KUHNER: Impeach the president?
  2. EDITORIAL: Obama surrenders gulf oil to Moscow
  3. Obama backs plan to legalize illegals
  4. RUSE: The Girl Scout Sex Guide
  5. TURNER: Our lawbreaking Congress
More Top Stories »
  1. Gitmo suspects allowed laptops while in custody
  2. PRUDEN: Into the twilight zone
  3. STEYN: 'Deemocracy' in action
  4. Voight, tea party groups plan last-minute protest
  5. EDITORIAL: WWII: The most racist generation

Most Commented

  1. KUHNER: Impeach the president?
  2. Obama backs plan to legalize illegals
  3. Gitmo suspects allowed laptops while in custody
  4. EDITORIAL: Obama surrenders gulf oil to Moscow
  5. Voight, tea party groups plan last-minute protest
More Top Stories »
  1. Health-vote ally Nelson to get new VA hospital for Nebraska
  2. Key Democrat Boccieri switches to 'yes' on health vote
  3. Democrats make final push on health care
  4. EDITORIAL: WWII: The most racist generation
  5. Poll finds stubborn suspicion of census

Listen to Washington Times Radio

  • America's Morning News

    with John McCaslin

Question of the day

Do you want Congress to start over in terms of health care reform?

Blogs & Columns

  • Water Cooler

    Congressman claims health care bill protesters hurled racial slurs

  • Belief Blog

    Nancy Pelosi invokes the 'wrong' St. Joseph

  • Technology

    Ordering iPad is painless, except for the wallet hit

Advertising Links
TWT Store
  • e-edition
  • Print Edition
  • Weekly Washington Times
TWT Affiliates
  • Middle East Times
  • Golf
  • UPI
  • Arbor Ballroom
  • Washington Times Global
  • About TWT
  • Press Room
  • F.A.Q.
  • Work for TWT
  • Advertise
  • Sponsors
  • Contact Us
  • Privacy Policy
  • Site Map

All site contents © Copyright 2009 The Washington Times, LLC.