Sanctuary Cities: An Uproar That Began Long Ago

March 5, 2017
Has lesson plan

As deportations of unauthorized immigrants rose under President Donald Trump, some churches and cities declared themselves sanctuaries and shielded migrants from immigration enforcement.

As the Trump administration began to aggressively enforce the nation’s immigration laws, churches and cities across the country declared themselves “sanctuaries” – and pledged to protect undocumented immigrants from deportation. But it was just the latest resurgence of a movement that started more than 30 years ago, when hundreds of churches defied the government to protect undocumented immigrants from Central America.

In the early 1980s, thousands of Central American refugees, fleeing from civil wars and political violence, started coming across the U.S.-Mexico border. Many of them made it to Tucson, where a Presbyterian minister named John Fife began to help them apply for political asylum. But when Fife realized that the U.S. government routinely denied the migrants’ asylum claims, he helped start a modern day underground railroad: he and small group of church workers and other allies smuggled migrants across the border and gave them “sanctuary” in churches. Soon, hundreds of churches and synagogues joined him in what became a nationwide sanctuary movement. The movement led to a national confrontation between religious beliefs and the law – a confrontation that continues to play out.

For teachers
  • Producer: Scott Michels
  • Editor: Anne Checler
  • Reporter: Meral Agish
  • Reporter: Sarah Weiser
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For Educators

Subjects
Civics & Government English Language Arts U.S. History
Topics
1980s Domestic Policy Human Rights Immigration U.S. Presidents
Introduction

This 12-minute video looks at how as deportations of unauthorized immigrants rose under President Donald Trump, some churches and cities declared themselves sanctuaries and shielded migrants from immigration enforcement. It was the latest chapter of a movement with a long history.

Lesson Plan 1: The Uproar Over Sanctuary Cities Began Long Ago
The Uproar Over Sanctuary Cities Began Long Ago
The Uproar Over Sanctuary Cities Began Long Ago
Teaching About Immigration and Migration
Overview
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Students will learn about sanctuary cities and engage in a deliberation over whether local governments have the right to limit cooperation with federal immigration enforcement.

Objectives
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Students will:

  • Engage in a deliberation over whether local governments have the right to limit cooperation with federal immigration enforcement.
  • Examine the principles of sanctuary cities and analyze perspectives.
  • Compare and contrast the resistance to immigration policy in the 1980s and the more recent debate over sanctuary cities.
Essential questions
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  • Do local governments have a right to limit cooperation with federal immigration enforcement agents with regard to migrants’ immigration status?
  • What does it mean to provide sanctuary? 
  • How has the process of shielding undocumented immigrants from immigration enforcement agents changed from the 1980s to today?
Additional resources
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Standards
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College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Framework for Social Studies

  • D1.4.9-12. Explain how supporting questions contribute to an inquiry and how, through engaging source work, new compelling and supporting questions emerge. 
  • D2.Civ.1.9-12. Distinguish the powers and responsibilities of local, state, tribal, national, and international civic and political institutions.
  • D2.Civ.5.9-12. Evaluate citizens’ and institutions’ effectiveness in addressing social and political problems at the local, state, tribal, national, and/or international level.
  • D2.Civ.12.9-12. Analyze how people use and challenge local, state, national, and international laws to address a variety of public issues.
  • D2.Civ.13.9-12. Evaluate public policies in terms of intended and unintended outcomes, and related consequences. 
  • D2.His.1.9-12. Evaluate how historical events and developments were shaped by unique circumstances of time and place as well as broader historical contexts.
  • D2.His.5.9-12. Analyze how historical contexts shaped and continue to shape people’s perspectives.
  • D2.His.7.9-12. Explain how the perspectives of people in the present shape interpretations of the past.
  • D4.6.9-12. Use disciplinary and interdisciplinary lenses to understand the characteristics and causes of local, regional, and global problems; instances of such problems in multiple contexts; and challenges and opportunities faced by those trying to address these problems over time and place.

Common Core Literacy Standards

  • CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.9-10.2: Determine the central ideas or information of a primary or secondary source; provide an accurate summary of how key events or ideas develop over the course of the text.
  • CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.9-10.8: Assess the extent to which the reasoning and evidence in a text support the author’s claims.
  • CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.11-12.1: Cite specific textual evidence to support analysis of primary and secondary sources, connecting insights gained from specific details to an understanding of the text as a whole.
  • CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.11-12.9: Integrate information from diverse sources, both primary and secondary, into a coherent understanding of an idea or event, noting discrepancies among sources.
  • CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RST.11-12.7: Integrate and evaluate multiple sources of information presented in diverse formats and media (e.g., quantitative data, video, multimedia) in order to address a question or solve a problem.