Public Project
Living in Santuary
Since President Trump’s election, a growing number of undocumented immigrants have openly rebelled against the U.S. government’s mass deportation and family separations by seeking “sanctuary”—physical and spiritual refuge—inside churches, mosques, and temples across the United States. These families, whose diverse origins and cultures stretch from Iraq to Bangladesh to Guatemala, have become the nation’s new generation of immigrant leaders. The hundreds of congregations that have mobilized to support these families, meanwhile, are charting a new path for spirituality and resistance in the United States. Through dozens of woven oral histories, portraits, children’s drawings, and archival documents, Living in Sanctuary offers readers a window inside the daily lives of these families seeking refuge in contested, sacred spaces. It also chronicles how the movement draws strength from ancient and contemporary liberation theologies that traverse the globe—from a manger in Bethlehem, across Harriet Tubman’s underground railroad stops, to Archbishop Oscar Romero’s small chapel in San Salvador—to show how faith communities are redefining ideas about safety, refuge, spirituality, and the intersections of religion and politics.
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