It's the 20th Anniversary of the Sanctuary Movement

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March 22-24 events to commemorate 20th Anniversary of Sanctuary Movement

Robert White, former U.S. ambassador to El Salvador (1979-1981), Guenet Guebre Christos, regional representative for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and David Fitzsimmons, political cartoonist for the Arizona Daily Star will join with a host of national and local speakers in Tucson on Saturday, March 23, to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the Proclamation of Sanctuary and forge a new covenant to protect political asylum seekers Activities also are scheduled for March 22 and 24.

It was March 24, 1982, when a handful of Tucson religious leaders risked imprisonment by declaring sanctuary for political refugees fleeing civil war and death squads in Central America. Ultimately, 600-700 churches and synagogues across the country followed suit. The movement awoke the nation's conscience, saved thousands of lives and made political asylum more accessible to those persecuted by governments and paramilitary groups supported with U.S. tax dollars.

What impact did the Sanctuary Movement have on the lives of those refugees and the hundreds of selfless volunteers who assisted them? What are the critical human rights issues impacting our border today? What lessons can be drawn from the Sanctuary Movement to help protect present day asylum seekers, particularly in the wake of September 11?

These are some of the questions human rights advocates seek to answer during the three-day series of events entitled Beyond Sanctuary: The Quest for Political Asylum in 2002. They include:

• Friday, March 22 (1-9 p.m.)- Welcome reception; reunion of sanctuary workers and refugees; historic sanctuary videos and displays (location to be announced).
• Saturday, March 23, Tucson Convention Center, (8:30 a.m.-3:30 p.m.)-Educational symposium with local and national experts on the history and aftermath of sanctuary, current issues and what we can do to address them. Morning keynote address by Guenet Guebre Christos and lunch with David Fitzsimmons.
• Saturday evening, March 23, Tucson Convention Center (6:30-8:30 p.m.)-Banquet featuring keynote speaker, Robert White, former ambassador and currently president for the Center for International Policy. Special tribute will be paid to sanctuary leaders Pat and Jim Corbett, and to Oscar Romero, El Salvador's Archbishop who was assassinated on March 24, 1980.
• Sunday, March 24-9:30 a.m.: Interfaith service at Southside Presbyterian Church; 1 p.m.: symposium wrap up (location to be announced); reenactment of the Proclamation of Sanctuary by Borderlands Theater; reading of poetry and prose by sanctuary authors.

Registration for Saturday events is $75 for the symposium and $75 for the banquet, with proceeds benefiting the Asylum Program of Southern Arizona (APSA), a nonprofit, Interfaith Tucson legal aid group for indigent political asylum seekers. Friday and Sunday events are free to those who register for either the symposium or the banquet. A limited number of scholarships may be available. For more information, call Georgia Vancza, APSA at 520/623-0344 x1082, Email sanctuary20years@yahoo.com

The Anniversary Celebration is sponsored in part by The Asylum Program of Southern Arizona (APSA) which is a non-profit, legal aid organization for refugees who seek political asylum but are unable to hire attorneys to represent them before the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) and the Immigration Court.