On 24 March 1982, five Bay Area churches and one church in Tucson, Arizona held coordinated press conferences in which they announced their intention to offer safe haven to undocumented Central American refugees who requested protection from deportation. In Berkeley, representatives of the churches involved were joined by three Salvadoran asylum seekers who agreed to risk speaking publicly in order to draw attention to the plight of the El Salvadorans and Guatemalans being refused status by the Government. The Sanctuary movement quickly spread across the US: by 1985 over 500 churches and synagogues were active members of the Sanctuary network.

The Central American Sanctuary movement drew on a long tradition of offering refuge in churches, including early Jewish and Christian social teachings and Medieval law. There were also clear connections to the anti-slavery Underground Railroads that had operated across the U.S. in the nineteenth century, and more recent sanctuaries offered too . At first the Sanctuary movement was focused on helping Central American refugees to continue moving north to Canada where – it was hoped – those with credible claims would find it easier to get settled status. But after the U.S. government put pressure on the Canadian government to refuse Central American claims, the Movement shifted to housing asylum seekers in the U.S., and raising public awareness of their plight, often by encouraging those seeking sanctuary to speak publicly about their experiences to church congregations.

Sanctuary Cities

Determined to crack down on the Sanctuary Movement, in January 1985 the US government launched a ten-month investigation, Operation Sojourner, that sent paid informants into sanctuary communities to gain the trust of members  and report back to federal officials. In what became known as "The Sanctuary Trials", dozens of defendants charged with alien smuggling claimed to be upholding the US Constitution and International Law through their acts of civil disobedience. Although they lost their cases, the defendants won enormous public sympathy for their cause and helped to shift public opinion, laying the ground for a more sympathetic policy framework. In 1990, Congress would pass legislation allowing Salvadoran and Guatemalans in the US to apply for “Temporary Protected States”, providing protection against deportation.

As public sympathy for Central American refugees grew, the Sanctuary movement started to focus on limiting immigration raids and civic cooperation with the federal Immigration and Naturalization Service, INS (a predecessor to today’s ICE). Los Angeles was the first city to pass a sanctuary policy in 1979, instructing police officers not to concern themselves with individuals’ immigration status. In February 1985 the Berkeley City Council voted 8-1 to declare all of Berkeley a Sanctuary for undocumented refugees. In December San Francisco followed suit, declaring itself a “City of Refuge” for Salvadoran and Guatemalan refugees.

In a landmark resolution that became the basis for many other Sanctuary City declarations, San Francisco’s supervisors affirmed that the city would not discriminate against these refugees on the basis of their immigration status, and would not carry out federal immigration policy (though its officials would also not directly impede the work of INS). 50,000 San Francisco residents signed petitions advocating for the resolution. San Francisco Sheriff Michael Hennessey was among a number of law enforcement officials who spoke out in favor of the resolution.