By Philip Sean Curran, Staff Writer
The Rev. Jana Purkis-Brash, the senior pastor of Princeton United Methodist Church, finds herself in prayer on a hot-button national issue that other congregations in town are confronting.
What to do if the government steps up deporting illegal immigrants, something that President-elect Donald J. Trump campaigned and pledged to take action on. He originally called for removing all illegal immigrants, although he later said the immediate focus would be on removing those who have committed crimes.
One step that some churches nationally have taken, and some in Princeton are mulling, is to become “sanctuary congregations,” a move to open their doors to let those people in the country illegally to live there while the federal government is reviewing their cases. Three of them – Trinity, United Methodist and Nassau Presbyterian – have confirmed they are looking into the issue, with Princeton Theological Seminary also discussing among administration and others potentially taking such a step for its campus.
“We’re exploring what our role will be,” said the Rev. Paul Jeanes III, rector of Trinity Church, on Mercer Street. “What does our scripture, our faith and our tradition tell us what (is) the right thing to do? Sometimes that means making difficult choices.”
Around the country, sanctuary congregations tend to come from more liberal Protestant denominations, such as Presbyterianism, where the sanctuary movement started in the 1980s. Mr. Trump’s election helped spur an interest in churches locally to join with fellow congregations nationally.
Adriana Abizadeh, executive director of the Latin American Legal Defense and Education Fund Inc., said any church willing to take such a step should be “applauded.”
In the Rev. Purkis-Brash’s case, she came to know migrant farm workers and their families in Burlington County during the time she was ministering in a church there. She saw how they struggled to get basic health care.
“We are all God’s people,” she said. “No one’s an alien. No one’s illegal.”
Within the membership of his Episcopal church, the Rev. Jeanes said there is a range of political views, from Trump supporters on the right to Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders supporters on the left. Yet raising and taking stands on controversial national issues could prove dicey for church leaders who have members with different points of view, a move that risks driving some away or making them feel like outsiders in their own churches.
“All pastors right now who are against Trump being elected have to consider very carefully how they’re going to even speak from their pulpit or to their congregation knowing that there’ll be people in the congregation who don’t agree with them,” said Nancy Duff, a professor of Christian ethics at Princeton Theological Seminary, who supported Hillary Clinton in the past election. “That’s a major problem for pastors around the country, unless they are part of a very liberal church where pretty much everybody would already agree. But that’s not typical.”
St. Paul Catholic Church on Nassau Street attracts a Latino congregation that comes for Sunday night services in Spanish. Church leaders and the town have worked together on immigration issues. Earlier this year, the town had an information session in the church basement for illegal immigrants on what to do if they encounter agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
For his part, St. Paul’s pastor, the Monsignor Joseph N. Rosie, did not return phone calls inquiring whether the church would become a sanctuary.
Churches, like Nassau Presbyterian, have governing boards that would have to decide whether or not to be a sanctuary congregation.
Soon after the presidential election, there was a push to have Princeton University make itself a sanctuary campus for people living in the country illegally. University president Christopher L. Eisgruber rejected that idea by saying “this concept has no basis in law, and that colleges and universities have no authority to exempt any part of their campuses from the nation’s immigration laws.”
Princeton Theological Seminary administration, faculty and students are in conversation about the Seminary “possibly” becoming a sanctuary campus, said Seminary spokeswoman Michelle Roemer Schoen. She said the school’s board of trustees would discuss the issue at the January board meeting.
Alvin Phillips, a spokesman for ICE’s New Jersey office, said this week that his agency’s new community relations officer and field office director “will continue to engage in communication with nongovernmental organizations, the academic community and other entities.”
While the town has met with church leaders in the wake of the election, municipal government officials said they are taking a hands off view on whether they think churches in town should become sanctuaries. “I do think churches and synagogues play an important role in the community,” said Princeton Mayor Liz Lempert, a Democrat who backed Ms. Clinton.
“There’s things that churches are going to be able to do that the government can’t always do,” she said. “And I think we also recognize that the churches have outreach to different members of the community. And when we want to get the word out about certain things, they can reach out to networks in a very effective way that helps everybody.”
Councilwoman Jenny Crumiller, the incoming council president, said she did not think it was her role to encourage, or discourage, churches from going the route of making themselves sanctuaries. “But I approve of it, if they do it,” she said.
In a town that voted heavily for Ms. Clinton, the election shook up many in Princeton, home to a sizable population of immigrants primarily from Central America. Superintendent of Schools Stephen C. Cochrane said students with undocumented family members have been asking questions and expressing concerns.
As a community, Princeton finds itself in the middle of the immigration debate. On one hand, the town is a sanctuary city, so police do not comply with civil immigration detainer requests or administrative holds that ICE puts on illegal immigrants police happen to arrest. Police do not inquire into someone’s immigration status, so an illegal immigrant, for instance, will not get into trouble with ICE if he or she is stopped for driving without a license.
The department contends that it needs the cooperation of the immigrant community in solving crimes, and says it is not charged with enforcing immigration law. Police, however, must notify immigration authorities if they arrest someone for an indictable offense or drunken driving, per a directive from the state Attorney General’s Office.
Aside from steps that police do or not take, the town also seeks to recover the wages of immigrants from employers who don’t pay them, have information sessions on what they should do if they encounter ICE and, beginning before consolidation, provide them community identification cards.
“We are committed to remaining a welcoming community and helping to educate residents about their rights,” Councilwoman Heather H. Howard said.
Princeton has been lauded by advocates for opening its arms to the people living in the country illegally, although critics contend sanctuary cities harbor people who have broken the law. Mr. Trump has pledged to defund such municipalities.
“I think that one of the purposes at least of this bright line where you have cities, police departments, sheriffs departments refusing to allow the federal government to deport a convicted illegal alien is part of an effort to de-legitimize the very concept of deportation as a remedy for illegal entry or overstay,” said Heather Mac Donald, a writer with the conservative think tank, the Manhattan Institute.
“Because if the concept holds – that it is morally illegitimate to deport somebody who’s here illegally and then goes on to commit further crimes – then it’s equally illegitimate to deport an illegal alien who has not been convicted of committing crimes,” she continued. “So deportation gets completely taken off the table as a morally justified response to illegal presence. And when that happens, if it is no longer morally or politically acceptable to deport somebody who’s in the country illegally, that the federal government has no right to use its deportation power against somebody in the country illegally except in the most heinous cases of the most violent crimes of murder or rape, then you have no more immigration law … .”
In his winning presidential campaign, Mr. Trump pledged among other things to “triple” the number of ICE agents, build a wall along the southern border with Mexico and deport the two million “criminal aliens” who have been convicted of breaking the law.
For her part, Mayor Lempert said she would be opposed to the government increasing deportations, in pointing to the potential impact of children being separated from their parents. Ms. Crumiller said increased deportations would be “harsh.”
