riddle@ut-sally.UUCP (Prentiss Riddle) (01/18/85)
> Since when is it permissable for anybody, or any group of > people, (including any church) to violate the immigration laws of > the United States by illegally smuggling in aliens? The position of the Sanctuary workers who have been arrested is that they have in fact done nothing illegal. According to both international and U.S. law, innocent civilians fleeing war and political persecution are refugees, not illegal aliens, and have every right to stay in this country until the danger at home is over. Of course, the Reagan administration disagrees, since it refuses to recognize persecution coming from any direction other than the left. Whatever this administration would like you to think, the Sanctuary workers are not Coyotes; they are caring people who are willing to put their own freedom in jeopardy in order to help others in need. > ...And besides, what the hell do they > think they're changing by smuggling in a few hundred people anyway? Someone mentioned the Undergound Railroad. The comparison is an apt one: like that of the Underground Railroad, the impact of the Sanctuary movement can't be measured by the small number of people it is able to save directly, but rather by its presence as a sign of hope for the people left behind and its contribution to ending the conditions which are causing their plight in the first place. --- Prentiss Riddle ("Aprendiz de todo, maestro de nada.") --- {ihnp4,harvard,seismo,gatech,ctvax}!ut-sally!riddle --- riddle@ut-sally.UUCP, riddle@ut-sally.ARPA, riddle@zotz.ARPA