An author and researcher argues the meaning of “sanctuary” is much deeper than the political shorthand we’ve come to know surrounding immigration.
Gina Perez is a professor at Oberlin College in Ohio. Her most recent book, Sanctuary People, explores sanctuary practices in Ohio, and locates them in broader local and national efforts to provide refuge and care in the face of the challenges facing Latina/o communities in a moment of increased surveillance, migrant detention, displacement, and economic and social marginalization.
Perez visited Normal this week to speak at Illinois State University’s Latinx Heritage Month Celebration, which continues through Oct. 15. She spoke about her Sanctuary People book that was published in 2024 and chronicles life during the first Trump administration. She said the second Trump administration has only “amplified” its “assault on immigrant communities,” and her Ohio work provides a blueprint for how communities can respond.
“One of those ways is drawing on long histories of resistance and struggle and organizing to create coalitions, and to remember the value of faith-based organizing as one of important, crucial spaces for resistance,” Perez said on WGLT’s Sound Ideas. She noted how resistance has recently emerged in cities like Chicago and Portland.
Indeed, Perez said people have sought — and received — sanctuary for thousands of years, from the Hebrews to ancient Greece to those fleeing war in Central America in the 1980s. And it’s not always about immigration status; some Puerto Ricans, for example, landed in Ohio after Hurricane Maria devastated their home in 2017, Perez said.
“In all these instances, sanctuary practices were ways to invoke the transcendent and the divine to address abuse of state power, or the imposition of state power, and to mitigate different kinds of struggles, tensions, conflicts and rivalries between people,” Perez said.
One reason President Trump has targeted Chicago is because of sanctuary laws in the city and Illinois that protect immigrants. Those laws prohibit local officials from helping federal immigration agents enforce federal immigration law. Illinois has had a similar law in place since 2017 called the TRUST Act.
“We live in a moment where the word sanctuary and the practice of sanctuary is incredibly polarized, and people have very strong opinions one way or the other,” Perez said. “Sometimes what’s lost is the longer history of sanctuary as a practice.”
The political right has even used the term “sanctuary” to set up special protections for gun rights or unborn children in some places. Perez said that shows there’s “power in this idea of sanctuary.”
“The co-optation of sanctuary language by the political right affirms that people are doing something that’s threatening — that threatens the status quo and challenges a secular authority, that wants to strip people of their rights, and wants to punish people that want to help others in order to protect them,” she said.
Perez recalled a community activist in Columbus, Ohio, who often said, “We are called to be sanctuary people, and that to be a sanctuary person means that you saw your struggles and your needs as tied up with those of others.”
So how can one become a sanctuary person?
“Sanctuary people are not born, but are continually made. And they’re made through practices big and small. And especially the small ones," she said. "Showing up to a meeting to learn about what’s going on in your community. Showing up at a religious service or a prayer vigil in support of community members who are impacted by different kinds of policies.
"Writing letters to the editor. Trying to be involved in your local city council, to ensure there are policies in place to protect all members of your community. Those are all really small, but ultimately habituated practices that create something bigger.”
Perez added: “Nobody is born a sanctuary person, but we make decisions every single day about how we show up for one another.”
See more events happening at ISU during its Latinx Heritage Month Celebration.
