How the sanctuary movement became the faithful's answer to ICE raids

In January 2025, President Trump signed an executive order lifting a 14-year ban on enforcing immigration laws at sensitive locations like churches and schools. It was part of a larger crackdown on mass arrests and deportations that instilled fear in immigrants across the country — and galvanized faith communities and leaders, who drew on a tradition stretching back to the Hebrew Bible to protect and advocate for immigrants.

The crackdown reignited tension between the U.S. government and religious communities over immigration that has flared on and off ever since the birth of the “sanctuary movement” in the early 1980s, when churches and synagogues began offering shelter and support for undocumented immigrants, believing they were obeying a higher moral obligation than U.S. laws. Today the movement continues — and is still led by clergy and religious groups — though the focus has shifted from offering physical shelter to providing aid to immigrants too fearful to leave their homes.

Religion & Politics

Photos of the Week: Eid celebrations, Buddha's birthday preparations

A family celebrates after performing Eid al-Fitr prayers to mark the end of the holy fasting month of Ramadan at the Jama Masjid in New Delhi, India, Saturday, March 21, 2026. (AP Photo Manish Swarup)

In Opinion

And finally, How a network of ordained women got Sarah Mullally to Canterbury

When Sarah Mullally is installed as the 106th archbishop of Canterbury on Wednesday (March 25), it will be an extraordinary occasion not only for the most obvious reason that she is the first woman ever to lead the Church of England and serve as convener of the Anglican Communion: As a former chief nurse of the United Kingdom’s National Health Service, Mullally is also the first archbishop of Canterbury to have led a major public agency in the country.

In the congregation at Canterbury Cathedral in Kent on Wednesday, along with royals, politicians, clergy from around the world and schoolchildren, will be representatives from the NHS, testifying to Mullally’s accomplishments before she was ordained in 2002.

In another first, at least in recent memory, she took part in a pilgrimage, walking the 87 miles from St Paul’s Cathedral in her London diocese, where she has been bishop since 2018, to Canterbury.

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