UPDATED: Feb. 20, 2018 at 12:09 a.m.

As members of the All Saints Roman Catholic Church on University Hill head to mass on this Ash Wednesday, they will notice a bright orange banner hanging above a set of pews.

“IMMIGRANTS & REFUGEES WELCOME,” the banner reads. Mary, Joseph and baby Jesus cross its folds.

Through the Central New York Interfaith Sanctuary Coalition, four local parishes, including All Saints, have committed to providing and supporting sanctuary for undocumented immigrants in Syracuse.

Clergy and church members said this pledge was motivated by President Donald Trump’s “nationalistic, racist” rhetoric toward undocumented immigrants. Advocates for undocumented immigrants say this sanctuary commitment is positive action, but more assistance is still needed from both parishes and individual residents.

“As a Christian, I thought about taking this as an aspect of faith, and not just a political statement, but as part of my faith commitment,” said Mary Kuhn, a member of All Saints. “Jesus talked about welcoming the stranger.”

Rev. Fred Daley of All Saints said his church is the only one of the four other sanctuaries that is able to provide physical space for sanctuary, as of now. The space would be available for undocumented immigrants with limited resources who are going through legal battles in immigration court, Daley said.

The apartment that All Saints is offering, which is part of its parish annex, can only accommodate one to two people, but it is furnished and has a working kitchen. While the space may be minimal, it speaks volumes symbolically.

All Saints is near Syracuse University’s Main Campus on Lancaster Avenue.

The other three churches — St. Lucy’s Church, University United Methodist Church and Plymouth Congregational Church — have committed to material and spiritual support of undocumented immigrants and those in sanctuary.

“By and large, it’s the community standing up and saying the present system is unjust and is causing great suffering,” Daley said.

Syracuse Mayor Ben Walsh has been hesitant to publicly use the “sanctuary city” phrase to describe Syracuse, about a year after the terminology received national recognition after Trump’s administration implemented a controversial travel ban that affected several majority Muslim countries.

Walsh has said, though, that he plans to keep in place policies enacted by former Mayor Stephanie Miner, though, that do not require police to arrest people based on immigration status — a policy frequently implemented by sanctuary cities. But that’s still concerning for some activists.

“It’s a sad state of affairs in a city in which hundreds of people have sometimes come out and said that they want Syracuse to be a sanctuary city,” said Rebecca Fuentes, a lead organizer of the Workers’ Center of Central New York. “I hope that there’s more and there should be more.”

Daley said the vote at All Saints was 454 affirmations to seven abstentions and 16 dissensions. At St. Lucy’s, the vote was 201 affirmations to four abstentions or dissensions, said Dave Pasinski, a member of St. Lucy’s parish.

Although Kuhn has been politically active all her life, this is the first time she’s worked with a church on developing sanctuary. Both she and Pasinski, though, said this work is directly in line with the greater social justice missions of All Saints and St. Lucy’s.

And they are not alone. More than 1,000 other churches participate in the sanctuary movement, according to Church World Service, with more than half of those joining after the 2016 election.

Pope Francis, known for his more liberal viewpoints in relation to traditional Catholic doctrine, also stands with them.

He has repeatedly called for more Catholics to take refugees into their homes. While in the United States on a visit in 2015, he discussed migrants during a joint session of Congress, saying they should be seen “as persons, seeing their faces and listening to their stories, trying to respond as best we can to their situation,” according to The New York Times.

Coalition organizers emphasized the element of protest in their offer of sanctuary. That is partially because, if these churches offer sanctuary to undocumented immigrants, it would be public, Daley said, both through announcements and media coverage.

Because of this, what All Saints is doing is not illegal, but it also means that they cannot physically shield anyone from the police or Immigration and Custom Enforcement agents, Daley said.

Although it seems contradictory to announce the location of an undocumented immigrant, Daley said there is a tradition of law enforcement honoring the sanctity of the church in the U.S.

Perhaps more importantly, though, Fuentes said there are tangible benefits for undocumented immigrants to enter sanctuary publicly. When the public knows about the status and location of someone in sanctuary, they form a support network for that person, she said. Fuentes also said it shows the government that these people are not fugitives trying to defy the law.

Ultimately, Fuentes said aid for undocumented immigrants is sorely needed right now, as the situation they face becomes more and more desperate.

“The government right now is really closing all the doors,” Fuentes said. “Many people have to jump through all the hoops that are put out, all the obstacles … and the government is still not giving them anything, any relief or any support.”

Increased ICE activity means activists must be more active, Fuentes said. Besides simply providing physical space, Fuentes said, people can help by participating in rapid response teams, raising money for families and legal expenses and advocating for fair immigration reform.

All of those actions are included in the CNY Interfaith Sanctuary Coalition’s three main goals: to advocate for, support and fundraise for undocumented immigrants in need.

For parish members of All Saints and St. Lucy’s churches, these goals are not just political.

Pasinski echoes his spiritual leader, Pope Francis.

“On a humanitarian level, this is the respect that people are due,” Pasinski said. “We are not declaring people illegals in a situation that is so arbitrary.”

CORRECTION: In a previous version of this post, Mary Kuhn’s parish membership was misstated. Kuhn is a member of All Saints Roman Catholic Church. The Daily Orange regrets this error.

Published on February 13, 2018 at 10:59 pm

Contact Delaney: dovanwey@syr.edu