I can’t imagine that with the current immigration policies, or lack of them, that the US gov’t would ever violate a church’s right to grant sanctuary to illegal immigrants. I’m sure we’ll be following the Canadian initiative to see how it plays out.
Only once have the civil authorities forced their way into a church to seize a protected person — in March of this year, when Quebec City police pushed past the minister of St-Pierre United Church to arrest Algerian refugee claimant Mohamed Cherfi. Mr. Cherfi, whose offences were to have failed to report a change of address and to have been involved in a demonstration against human-rights violations in Algeria, was immediately turned over to the United States for likely removal to Algeria.
Can you imagine a US official actually coming out with this type of statement:
When Bloc Québécois MP Serge Cardin urged then-immigration-minister Denis Coderre last October to implement an appeal mechanism, and mentioned a refugee-claimant family who had been living for three months in a Quebec church, Mr. Coderre replied, “I do not negotiate in churches or with churches. . . . We on this side of the floor do not condone civil disobedience.” Posted by TangoMan at 03:06 AM