Everyone knows where Flor Crisostomo lives, even the federal immigration officials who have ordered her deported to Mexico. The reason they haven't detained her is her address — Adalberto United Methodist Church.
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(Photo: AP Images / Charles Rex Arbogast)Illegal immigrant Flor Crisostomo poses inside the Adalberto United Methodist Church in Chicago on May 15, 2008, where she has sought sanctuary for more than three months. It's the same church another woman, Elvira Arellano, used as a base to champion immigration reform. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement have arrested hundreds in raids on factories, restaurants, malls, farms and meat packing plants, but is hesitant to arrest immigrants who seek sanctuary in churches.
Another woman famously took refuge in that church as she championed immigration reform, and at least 13 other illegal immigrants are doing the same at churches around the country. So far, they have little to fear.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials have arrested illegal immigrants by the hundreds in raids at factories, restaurants, malls, farms and meat packing plants, but they have handled cases involving churches delicately.
"Our agency takes enforcement actions when we deem it appropriate," said Julie Myers, assistant secretary of homeland security for ICE. "I am personally not aware of an instance when ICE has gone into a church. That being said, if there was a particular, extremely egregious, ax murderer or something else, that's not to say we would not enforce the law at that time."
Avoiding churches is unofficial policy for federal immigration officials, according to Doris Meissner, a former commissioner at the Immigration and Naturalization Service, the agency that oversaw immigration until the Department of Homeland Security was formed in 2003.
Since the 1970s the unwritten rule has been "no churches, no playgrounds, no schools," said Meissner, now a senior fellow at the Migration Policy Institute in Washington.
Critics say making exceptions for churches, where immigrants openly — and in Crisostomo's case, very publicly — defy deportation, makes the agency look lax.
"These are people who deliberately violated the law," said Dave Gorak, executive director of the Midwest Coalition to Reduce Immigration. "We can't even enforce the laws without being criticized as Gestapo."
But Meissner said it wouldn't make sense for the agency to devote resources to arrest the relatively small number of people in sanctuary.
"An agency like ICE has far more work than it can possibly ever do," Meissner said. "You want to use those resources to thwart as much as possible egregious criminal behavior. A single person in a church doesn't really measure very high on a list."
Crisostomo came to the U.S. in 2000, paying a smuggler in Mexico to get her across the border. She was arrested in 2006 during a raid at a wooden pallet company in Chicago.
She has been at the West Side church for six months, since the Board of Immigration Appeals ordered her to leave the United States, holding news conferences, writing blogs and lecturing school groups about immigration issues.
Over the past year, ICE has focused on raids at workplaces.
"They pick work sites because they understand it is work that acts as a lure for unauthorized migrants to come to the U.S.," said Louis DeSipio, a political science professor who teaches Chicano/Latino studies at the University of California, Irvine. "ICE is sensitive to the publicity effect of their actions. They are careful on respecting religion and churches." Continue >>
Comments
In order to apply for citizenship, they must follow the regulations set forth by the government. There are immigration limits put in place by the government. If you do not make it into the numbers (first come first served), you can not stay here. If you come in on a student or visitor visa, you can not legally work. If they are here illegally, it is problematic to try to get a work visa.
People with no options in their countries of origin to make sufficient money to live decently will take their chances and try to enter the country illegally. Many come here for the money, and send most of it home to support parents, wife/children. Some who came illegally find they like it and want to stay, but then they have already broken the laws and so find it difficult to apply for a work visa. Others who came for the money end up having families here and want to stay (the children are citizens of this country). The same problems exist in these cases for the parents who came here illegally.
illegal aliens need to be protected , and that is a very compelling reason to reach out and help them. Many are being used as slaves, prostitutes. Also we need to realize many turn to crime if they were not criminals before they came here. its a very big problem , prisons have many illegals, gangs and drug pushers are here by the many thousands. mexico has alot of violence, even the police are afraid and killed by gangs/ mafia. Many are paid by those same gangs to look the other way, its a big problem there.
I would like to see many brought to citizen ship but not on there terms, and the criminals removed permanently.
(ICE) does not discriminate, and therefore if church people get caught offering refuge to 'illegal aliens' NOT IMMIGRANTS. They are likely to be arrested for aiding and abetting. Today! NOW! (ICE) is now being offered intelligence by the public-at-large. The meat processing plants, other work places had obviously a informant , who decided enough is enough?
More and more Whistle-blowers are rising to the surface, because like all Americans they are frustrated with their tax dollars supporting illegal lawbreakers. That the suspicious activity regarding fraudulent Social Security Numbers and large numbers of individuals who cannot comprehend English was certain to draw attention. Church members for all their obvious activism, are just supporting the inevitable? Because just like the illegal alien female who took refuge in a Chicago church who thought she could ignore immigration law, finally got arrested and consequently got deported.
America is a compassionate country, but we must abide by the "Rule of Law." Immigration laws was enacted by THE PEOPLE, not the politicians. 80 percent of the American people want heavily enforced borders, no path to Citizenship or BLANKET AMNESTY. The church is ignoring our laws and should be held accountable. Religious organizations are not above the law, predatory employers or any citizen or legal resident.
Join NUMBERSUSA a help stop the illegal alien occupation of our country.
why dont the illegals apply for citizenship, or work permits or education permits etc... Why demand citizenship when htey refuse to follow the simple ways to get that. i.e. take the test. I dont know alot about it i think it takes like 5 years of studying and being working and the like before they are sworn in. Back ground checks, finger printing and picture i.d. seem to be something they dont like , always hiding and being outside the society and unaccountable.