A place of worship and hope is now a place of refuge. Hundreds of undocumented families are scared of getting detained and deported back to their home country. These immigrants came into the country illegally, but have made a life for themselves in the US.

President Trump assigned an executive order to “beef up” the immigration law enforcement. In response, many undocumented immigrants are living in fear— receiving sanctuary in local churches.

To further examine this topic, I first looked at an article written on February 17th, 2017 by Jason Hanna– a columnist at CNN. This article analyzes the legal backings of a recent topic on ICE and undocumented immigrants, and how many undocumented immigrants run to churches for sanctuary. Many think this is a way of combating ICE’s spontaneous arrests; but, is arresting in a place of worship illegal?

Stephen Yale Loehr, an immigration law professor at Cornell University, states how ICE can still arrest undocumented immigrants in a place of worship. In fact, the Immigration and Nationality Act prohibits anyone from knowingly harboring an undocumented immigrant “in any place, including any building.” Those convicted of doing so risk years in prison — so yes it is legal to arrest in a place of worship.

So why does ICE not typically arrest people in a place of worship?

“I think for publicity reasons, US immigration enforcement does not like to go into churches,” says Loehr. “The immigrants feel safer and ICE has said it they generally avoid arrests at sensitive locations.” Meaning, that undocumented immigrants can participate in activities and services in a place of worship without hesitation. However legally, a church doesn’t provide a “shield of protection” from ICE.

How many churches are doing this? Hundreds. Since Trump was elected in November, the number of churches in the United States expressing willingness to offer sanctuary has doubled to 800, according the Rev. Noel Anderson, national grassroots coordinator at Church World Service.

While I can not begin to fathom how the life of an undocumented citizen is, I can still sympathize. Many fail to realize the strenuous, difficult process of gaining citizenship into this country. These people have come to the US to escape a life of suffering, into a life of prosperity.

How can we, as a country, acknowledge a policy in which separates a father from his daughter?

How can we, as a country, acknowledge a policy that results in a lifetime of tears?

I am a second generation immigrant living here in the United States. My parents came to this country on a work visa from India– eventually leading to a citizenship, in order to build a better life for themselves. If it weren’t for them, I wouldn’t have gotten a valuable education. If it weren’t for them, I would have still been living in a developing country waiting to get out. I owe my immigrant parents everything.

This article pulled at my heartstrings and made me think about the atrocities going on in our world today. Like how I stated in previous entries, I really hope that more people will open their eyes to the evil going on in the world. The first step to fight the evil is to talk about it.