The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Atlanta on Tuesday said a Catholic mission in Lilburn will help a pregnant El Salvadorian woman seeking sanctuary there but will “not be a long-term solution.”
Claudia Mariela Jurado fled to the Our Lady of the Americas Catholic Mission with her two young children Friday after federal immigration authorities requested she appear in Atlanta to be deported for illegally entering the country. Using a pair of garden shears, she recently cut off the electronic monitoring bracelet immigration authorities had attached to her ankle. Now living in a converted office at the mission, Jurado said she left El Salvador because a gang extorted money from her there.
“To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time someone has attempted to claim sanctuary in one of our Catholic churches,” Paula Gwynn Grant, a spokeswoman for the archdiocese, said in a prepared statement Tuesday afternoon. “Our Lady of the Americas Mission will provide assistance to the extent that the law and their very limited resources allow, mindful that the mission is not a long-term solution.”
Grant added Catholic teaching “has long supported the principle that every person has the right to live in his or her homeland in security and dignity with opportunities for work.”
“Yet, when the loss of these rights compels individuals to migrate to other lands, we should welcome them, protect them and generously share our bounty with them,” Grant said. “Based on scriptural and Catholic social teachings, as well as her own experience as an immigrant church in the United States, the Catholic Church is compelled to raise her voice on behalf of those who are marginalized.”
“The Catholic Church continues to advocate for reform of current immigration law,” Grant continued. “We recommend immigrants seek legal counsel to see if they have means to stay in the U.S. and/or to seek asylum under current immigration law. The U.S. Catholic Bishops do not condone unlawful entry or circumventions of our nation’s immigration laws.”
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