Northwoods Unitarian Universalist Church became one of the first churches in the area to become a sanctuary for immigrants. Sanctuary Project Coordinator Greg McDonell remarks at the press conference explained why they did it.
Following is the intro he gave at the press conference. It was moving that this small establishment would take on a task that will likely cause some friction in that community even as they are small and can only offer a symbolic impact. They have space for only one family.
Why they became a sanctuary for immigrants
The following statement is prescient.
With an estimate of over 500,000 undocumented neighbors in the greater Houston area, with people being arrested for a simple act of offering life giving water to migrants, with children being separated from their parents and caged in “FOR PROFIT” prisons like criminals, when a 21 year old declares that he was out to kill as many Mexicans as he can, demands that we do something.
This congregation has overwhelmingly decided to be a Sanctuary Church. This is not an Act of Civil Disobedience but an Act of Obedience to our core values as a faith community. For I have come to believe that only in resistance to evil are we really free. By that I mean, to say NOTHING, to do NOTHING is to be coopted as a slave into the evil ideology of hatred and fear. So we have chosen to say and do Something in our declaration this morning