Local Action, National Movement: Immigrant Sanctuary in a Time of Militant Deportation

Abstract

2017 saw the inauguration of Donald Trump and the mobilization of people across the United States in support of immigrants. In the first two decades of the twenty-first century, the federal government increasingly militarized and mobilized the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) against undocumented people in the American interior. After the 2016 election, many Americans grew unnerved by the negative rhetoric and outward hostility toward undocumented immigrants shown by Trump. As a part of this New Sanctuary Movement, sanctuary groups that shield undocumented immigrants from federal immigration enforcement and aid them in their fight against deportation sprung up across the country. This thesis seeks to understand how the individualized, grassroots work that sanctuary groups perform sprung from and informs the American sociopolitical landscape. Six sanctuary groups were studied through leader interviews, with a particular focus on four main forms of aid that they perform: rapid response, legal aid, accompaniment, and visitation. Each form of aid has a direct impact on individual undocumented immigrants. However, every piece of aid also builds onto the larger movement toward national change in a variety of ways. These include deepening ties between the documented and undocumented communies, building public support, and legally challenging federal policy. As sanctuary groups build support for the New Sanctuary Movement, legislators take notice. Federalist sanctuary policies in cities and states that challenge the authority of federal immigration enforcement have the power to affect national change. Thus, sanctuary groups are the bedrock of a movement that could transform U.S. immigration policy in favor of the undocumented.