
Sanctuary in America
How Activists Defied the Government and Defended Immigrants-And Why It Still Matters
Oxford University Press Inc
Will be published approx. on 14. January 2027
Book
Hardback
240 pages
978-0-19-785597-3 (ISBN)
Description
From church basements to city streets, this is the definitive account of one of America's most enduring movements for justice and what it can teach us.
As masked government agents roam the streets of American cities, tossing people into unmarked vans for the crime of speaking Spanish, the U.S. government's war on undocumented immigrants has never been waged more fiercely. But regular people are fighting back, and when they do, they often invoke the notion of "sanctuary." While Donald Trump issues executive orders from the White House, promising to leave no stone unturned and threatening to storm church doors in search of "illegal invaders," sanctuary activists cry that their directive to welcome the stranger comes from a higher power. At the same time, Trump, his "border czar" Tom Homan, Attorney General Pam Bondi, and chief strategist White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller all invoke "sanctuary" almost daily to decry a "migrant invasion" of the nation.
This showdown is not new. In Sanctuary in America, Lloyd D. Barba and Sergio M. Gonzalez--co-hosts of the Sanctuary podcast--tell the story of how sanctuary activists have, for nearly half a century, organized one of the most robust civil disobedience movements in American history. Rigorous yet readable, this book provides a sweeping historical account of a movement that emerged in the 1980s and how the past can help us better understand the New Sanctuary Movement of the twenty-first century. Replete with human interest stories, Sanctuary in America draws upon extensive archival data from across the country to tell the full story of one of the most successful resistance movements of the last fifty years. A compelling story of migrant journeys, religious activism, and political showdowns, this book speaks to those attempting to navigate the trying and tumultuous present.
As masked government agents roam the streets of American cities, tossing people into unmarked vans for the crime of speaking Spanish, the U.S. government's war on undocumented immigrants has never been waged more fiercely. But regular people are fighting back, and when they do, they often invoke the notion of "sanctuary." While Donald Trump issues executive orders from the White House, promising to leave no stone unturned and threatening to storm church doors in search of "illegal invaders," sanctuary activists cry that their directive to welcome the stranger comes from a higher power. At the same time, Trump, his "border czar" Tom Homan, Attorney General Pam Bondi, and chief strategist White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller all invoke "sanctuary" almost daily to decry a "migrant invasion" of the nation.
This showdown is not new. In Sanctuary in America, Lloyd D. Barba and Sergio M. Gonzalez--co-hosts of the Sanctuary podcast--tell the story of how sanctuary activists have, for nearly half a century, organized one of the most robust civil disobedience movements in American history. Rigorous yet readable, this book provides a sweeping historical account of a movement that emerged in the 1980s and how the past can help us better understand the New Sanctuary Movement of the twenty-first century. Replete with human interest stories, Sanctuary in America draws upon extensive archival data from across the country to tell the full story of one of the most successful resistance movements of the last fifty years. A compelling story of migrant journeys, religious activism, and political showdowns, this book speaks to those attempting to navigate the trying and tumultuous present.
Reviews / Votes
Sanctuary in America reminds us that communities across this country, for generations, have mobilized to defend immigrants and uphold basic human dignity. Lloyd Barba and Sergio Gonzalez chronicle a timely story about courage, solidarity, and the ongoing fight for justice. * Julian Castro, Former U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development; CEO, Latino Community Foundation * Barba and Gonzalez are the leading scholars of the Sanctuary Movement. They have argued for a faith-based immigrant rights movement for a long time. Sanctuary in America, a history of the movement over the past 50 years, not only in the cities where the movement started but all over the United States, is their most urgent plea yet. They've given us a primer on how the movement succeeded in the past, and how it could succeed again today. * Geraldo Cadava, Professor of History & Latino Studies, Northwestern University *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
New York
United States
Product notice
sewn/stitched
Cloth over boards
Illustrations
1 b/w figure
Dimensions
Height: 210 mm
Width: 140 mm
ISBN-13
978-0-19-785597-3 (9780197855973)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Lloyd D. Barba is Assistant Professor of Religion in the Americas and Core Faculty in Latinx and Latin American Studies at Amherst College. His ongoing research on the Sanctuary Movement brings together questions from religious history and immigration studies to understand the context of social activism and politics. Barba is the author of Sowing the Sacred: Mexican Pentecostal Farmworkers in California (OUP, 2022), which won the 2024 Manfred Lautenschlaeger Award and the 2024 Pneuma Book Award for Best Book in the Study of Pentecostalism. He is also editor of Latin American and US Latino Religions in North America: An Introduction (2024) and co-editor of Oneness Pentecostalism: Race, Gender, and Culture (with Andrea Shan Johnson and Daniel Ramirez, 2023).
Sergio M. Gonzalez is Associate Professor of History at Marquette University. A historian of twentieth-century U.S. migration, labor, and religion, his scholarship explores the intersections between faith and social
movements as well as the development of Latino communities in the U.S. Midwest. Gonzalez is the author of Strangers No Longer: Latino Belonging and Faith in Twentieth-Century Wisconsin (2024) and Mexicans in Wisconsin (2017) and co-editor of Faith and Power: Latino Religious Politics Since 1945 (with Felipe Hinojosa and Maggie Elmore, 2022).
Sergio M. Gonzalez is Associate Professor of History at Marquette University. A historian of twentieth-century U.S. migration, labor, and religion, his scholarship explores the intersections between faith and social
movements as well as the development of Latino communities in the U.S. Midwest. Gonzalez is the author of Strangers No Longer: Latino Belonging and Faith in Twentieth-Century Wisconsin (2024) and Mexicans in Wisconsin (2017) and co-editor of Faith and Power: Latino Religious Politics Since 1945 (with Felipe Hinojosa and Maggie Elmore, 2022).
Author
Assistant Professor of Religion in the Americas and Core Faculty in Latinx and Latin American StudiesAssistant Professor of Religion in the Americas and Core Faculty in Latinx and Latin American Studies, Amherst College
Associate Professor of HistoryAssociate Professor of History, Marquette University
Content
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction: Sanctuary in America
- Chapter 1: "La Migra No Profana el Santuario": The Origins of the Sanctuary Movement, 1980-1982
- Chapter 2: "No Middle Ground Between Resistance and Collaboration": The Development of a National Sanctuary Movement, 1983-1985
- Chapter 3: "Guilty of the Gospel": The Prosecution of the Sanctuary Movement and the Birth of Sanctuary Cities, 1985-1991
- Chapter 4: "I am neither a criminal nor am I a terrorist": The New Sanctuary Movement in a Post-9/11 America, 2006-2015
- Chapter 5: "Sacred Resistance": Sanctuary Everywhere in Trump's America, 2016-2020
- Chapter 6: "We Will End All Sanctuary Cities": The Politics of Migrant Crises and the 2024 Presidential Election, 2021-2025
- Epilogue: The Future of Sanctuary and Why Sacred Resistance Matters Today
- Notes
- Index