Lloyd D. Barba

“A Refuge of Resistance” will offer a historical sweep of the Sanctuary Movement from the 1980s to the present day. Sanctuary Movement activism arose across the United States in the 1980s when religious activists housed Central American refugees in places of worship and launched a public critique against the Reagan administration's intervention in Central America. The movement then scored legal victories in the early 1990s, sunsetting the 1980s movement. From mid-2006 to 2007, during the debates on comprehensive immigration reform, organizers resurrected the movement as the New Sanctuary Movement. And following Trump’s first election, the United States witnessed another wave of sanctuary activism. To understand the connections between these related iterations of sanctuary, this project will offer a religious history of the movement long grounded in sacred resistance.