In San Diego and across the country today, churches of all denominations are uniting to declare their collective defiance of federal immigration laws:

Alarmed by immigration raids on illegal workers, a coalition of U.S. religious groups is launching a sanctuary movement on Wednesday to harbor immigrant families who risk being torn apart.

Roman Catholic, Protestant, Jewish and Muslim groups are opening churches and synagogues to shelter families who face deportation.

“This is a natural for the religious community,” said Kim Bobo, founder of the national Interfaith Worker Justice organization and one of the “New Sanctuary Movement” coordinators.

“It is natural for us to find a much more public role, to stand up with the immigrants, to challenge the direction of the nation and suggest that we need a much more comprehensive immigration program,” Bobo told Reuters.

Translation: Amnesty now! Amnesty tomorrow! Amnesty forever!

The pro-amnesty NYTimes reports:

Recalling a movement that challenged United States policy in Central America in the 1980s, several religious congregations in New York and other cities will announce a campaign Wednesday to provide sanctuary to illegal immigrants who face deportation.

As of Tuesday, the organizers of what is being called the New Sanctuary Movement said that five churches in New York City had already offered assistance to two families — one from China and one from Haiti — and would provide them with shelter if the federal government moved to enforce the deportation orders filed against them.

“We’re launching now because we’re fed up with detentions, deportations and raids,” said the Rev. Dr. Donna Schaper, the senior minister of Judson Memorial Church in Greenwich Village.

Fed up, in other words, with the few token gestures towards immigration enforcement that are meant to soften up opposition to the coming mass amnesty supported by the White House and the Democratic-controlled Congress.

So where is DHS? Dithering:

It was not immediately clear whether the government would send agents into churches that harbor immigrants or what legal standing they would have to do so.

“We certainly understand, as does everybody, that nobody is above the law and that removal orders are issued by a federal judge, and they are something that should be complied with,” Marc Raimondi, a spokesman for Immigrations and Customs Enforcement in the Department of Homeland Security, said in an interview.

Meanwhile, illegal alien Elvira Arellano remains holed up in a Chicago church avoiding a deportation order. More than eight months and counting…

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Here’s an opposing Biblical take on illegal immigration, Romans 13, and lessons in lawlessness.

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Previous sanctuary blogging

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