Constructing Belonging: An In-Depth Analysis of the Oregon Sanctuary Movement

Session: (In-Person) Oral Panel—HURF

In the 1980s, churches in Oregon and across the nation declared themselves as sanctuaries for Central Americans fleeing civil conflict. This marked the start of the sanctuary movement, a religious and political campaign to assist migrants seeking safety in the United States. The movement made its way into the political sphere in 1987 when Oregon became the first state to pass a sanctuary policy, limiting the use of local law enforcement to apprehend undocumented immigrants. Decades later, the Oregon legislature solidified these protections in 2021 with the passage of the Sanctuary Promise Act. In researching the many dimensions of the Oregon sanctuary movement, my research project takes a multi-disciplinary approach to answer these research questions: How has the Oregon sanctuary movement evolved from its origins in faith-based activism? And how does Oregon’s sanctuary policy and the work of sanctuary and immigrants’ rights activists intersect to cultivate belonging for undocumented people? I engaged in a multi-method study by thematically analyzing interviews with Oregon sanctuary activists and analyzing the Sanctuary Promise Act through analysis of the bill’s text and contextualizing its provisions with interviews from community advocates and submitted public testimonies. These analyses show the resiliency and adaptability of the Oregon sanctuary movement as a community-powered campaign that responds to the needs of undocumented Oregonians in order to cultivate belonging.