Church to Be Billed $40,000 for Immigrant Rally
A Southern California church that is sheltering an illegal immigrant and her U.S.-born infant son will be billed nearly $40,000 for the police presence needed there this past weekend, officials said.
More than a hundred activists from both sides of the illegal immigration debate had faced off Sunday outside the United Church of Christ in Simi Valley, Calif., resulting in the injury of at least one person who was attacked with a chemical spray.
Mayor Paul Miller, who called the church's congregants irresponsible for "harboring an illegal immigrant," told the City Council Monday that he was ready to issue the $39,306 invoice right away.
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"This City Council has the obligation to protect all citizens in the community against any potential violence as a result of these ill-conceived actions," he said, according to The Associated Press.
Officials said the church's decision to shelter the woman, who has identified herself only as Liliana, provoked Sunday's protest organized by Save Our State. The anti-illegal immigration group said its members had hoped to make a citizen's arrest.
"I'm here because I'm for the movement for the illegals to go home," protester Dee Barrow said, according to AP.
Liliana, who lived in nearby Oxnard before taking shelter at the United Church of Christ, has been living in the church's former parsonage as part of the New Sanctuary Movement – the effort of churches in five big U.S. cities to protect illegal immigrants from deportation, offering their buildings as sanctuary if need be.
While some have called the effort "radical hospitality," others have called it misguided.
Save Our State, which has only been around for about two years, has described illegal immigration as "disastrous" and promotes "aggressive activism and advocacy" as ways to respond.
A statement on the group's Web site says that California is filled with people "who are weak and unwilling to wage battle against the Mexican racialists and the vast open borders lobby."
Between four and 15 officers were present during Sunday's three-hour rally, with two sheriff's tactical response teams on standby, police Chief Mike Lewis said.
Daniel Smallwood, one of the counter-protesters at Sunday's rally, accused the anti-illegal immigration activists of racism and said members of his group joined the rally because they didn't want their ideological opponents "to get all the attention."
During the confrontation, one immigrant-rights advocate was reportedly injured with a chemical spray. Police Capt. John McGinty said police were investigating allegations that an opposing protester was responsible.
There are an estimated 12 million illegal immigrants currently living in the United States, and at least 3.1 million children who have one or more parents in the country illegally, according to a 2006 report by the Pew Hispanic Center.
Earlier this summer, President Bush and a group of bipartisan senators had tried to push through Congress an immigration reform bill that would have provided a pathway for illegal immigrants to gain legal status while beefing up border security and enacting penalties for those crossing the border illegally.
Fierce opposition to the bill from conservative Republicans who called the legislation amnesty had derailed the legislation, however, leaving the emotionally-charged immigration problem as a potential key issue during the presidential race and a matter for the next administration to contend with.
In response to the immigration problem, the New Sanctuary Movement launched in May, and states in its web site that it "will enable congregations to publicly provide hospitality and protection to a limited number of immigrant families whose legal cases clearly reveal the contradictions and moral injustice of our current immigration system while working to support legislation that would change their situation."
The faith-based effort is loosely based on a movement in the 1980s, when churches harbored Central American refugees fleeing wars in their home countries. Organizers of the current movement include members of the Jewish, Muslim, Catholic and other faiths.
Participating churches in the five major cities – Los Angeles, San Diego, Seattle, Chicago and New York – won't all house illegal immigrants. They will, however, help in other ways such as providing legal counsel and accompanying them to court hearings.
