American Sanctuary Movement

U.S. v. Stacey Lynn Merkt, et al.

In the l980s, during the Reagan and Bush administrations, right-wing government death squads in Guatemala and El Salvador roamed the country killing thousands of people resisting U.S.-backed fascist dictatorships. People fled north seeking asylum and refugee status in the United States. U.S. immigration officials at the border were secretly instructed by the administration to detain them and send them back to their countries, where they were met and disappeared by the death squads.

The American Sanctuary Movement activated religious communities around the country to provide refuge in their churches and synagogues to the asylum seekers. Catholic workers from the Archdiocese of Brownsville, Texas—including a shelter volunteer named Stacey Lynn Merkt—were helping refugees who had been arrested and threatened with deportation.

In 1984, the Christic Institute legal team, led by chief counsel Daniel Sheehan, presented the first winning argument protecting political refugees seeking legal asylum in the U.S. in its defense of Merkt. On appeal, the Texas Federal District Court ruled in favor of the rights of political refugees who had been blocked from entering the U.S. by illegal executive branch orders. The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals declared the secret Executive Order unconstitutional, vindicating the work of the American Sanctuary Movement and saving hundreds of lives.