



The last of four parts.
SIMI VALLEY, Calif. - One of the most dramatic stories in America’s immigration saga occurs here every Sunday morning on Royal Avenue outside Simi Valley United Church of Christ.
In this affluent, well-scrubbed community just down the road from the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum, a handful of people, bearing American flags and signs, parade up and down the sidewalk.
They used to shout anti-immigrant slogans through bullhorns, said the Rev. June Goudey, the pastor of about 80 souls.
The target of their ire lives in a small house behind the church and down the end of a driveway. She is Liliana, 29, a Mexican citizen.
She is one of the better-known participants in the new sanctuary movement, examined by The Washington Times in visits to eight churches to interview 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.
California, which houses one-third of the nation’s immigrants, is the epicenter of sanctuary activity. Liliana, who shows up at an interview wearing high heels, gaucho pants and a stylish blouse, is one of the more outgoing and telegenic of several immigrants camped out in Sunday-school rooms and offices throughout the southern half of the state. She seeks not to be deported from a country where she has lived a third of her life.
Simi Valley UCC voted to give her shelter July 8, declaring itself a sanctuary congregation and plowing more than $5,000 into remodeling a house on church property. On Sunday mornings, she and her children walk to the church.
“There is something powerfully holy happening here,” Ms. Goudey said. “When that family worships with us, we are strengthened. People have rallied amazingly well.”
The raid
Liliana was 19 when she tried sneaking across the U.S. border in 1998, carrying a fake birth certificate and trying to join the rest of her family living in the United States.
“I didn’t know what the consequences of breaking the law were,” she said. When she was caught and deported, her name was placed in a database. Two months later, she paid a smuggler $2,500 to successfully sneak her across. She married a U.S. citizen, had three children - who are also citizens - and in 2005 bought a home in Oxnard, Calif., with her husband, a forklift operator and pizza delivery man.
But she was not aware of the deportation order issued for her in 1999. At 6:20 a.m. on May 16, 2007, five officers from the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) showed up at her door.
She recalled that her husband shook her awake, saying the police had come for her. Groggily walking into her kitchen, she saw the ICE insignia on the officers’ coats. One of the agents asked her in Spanish why she was crying.
“You’re not police; you’re Immigration,” she said.
View Entire Story
Julia Duin is the Times’ religion editor. She has a master’s degree in religion from Trinity School for Ministry (an Episcopal seminary) and has covered the beat for three decades. Before coming to The Washington Times, she worked for five newspapers, including a stint as a religion writer for the Houston Chronicle and a year as city editor at the ...
By Peter Vincent Pry
Hardening infrastructure will be key to minimizing the threat

By Meredith Somers - The Washington Times
George W. Huguely V lied to friends about his whereabouts the night Yeardley Love was ...

By David Hood - The Washington Times
Reston-based LightSquared Inc. vowed Wednesday to continue its fight to establish a national wireless broadband ...

By Kristina Wong - The Washington Times
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta engaged in a testy back-and-forth with Rep. J. Randy Forbes over ...
Independent voices from the TWT Communities