Jan 27, 2025
An Evanston church announced Monday it is opening its doors to immigrants seeking protection from deportation. The Rev. Michael Woolf, senior minister of Lake Street Church of Evanston, made the announcement at the church Monday and was joined by several faith leaders, representing different religions, heralding the decision. Mayor Daniel Biss also spoke at the announcement. Woolf said the church’s decision to allow immigrants to seek sanctuary was a religious one. “What we proclaim today is that immigrants, documented (or) undocumented — …they are the absolute beloved of God, that they possess a dignity that cannot be stripped from them by any memo, by any administration, by any human being on this earth,” he said. “We stand in solidarity with those fearing deportation, and we are willing to use all of our privilege and our resources to protect them,” Woolf said. A week prior to President Donald Trump’s Jan. 20 inauguration day, Evanston’s City Council approved updating its existing Welcoming City Ordinance. Biss made his dissatisfaction with the federal government’s immigration enforcement clear at the church event. “Someone asked me the hardest question I’ve been asked all day. They asked, how are you?” Biss said. “I’m not fine. I don’t feel fine. Nothing about this is fine. I’m angry and I’m worried. I’m worried about these policies that are a savage assault on what America is supposed to be about.” Biss remained optimistic in the face of efforts in the city to protect immigrants, whether they took form through the city’s Know-Your-Rights workshop the evening of Trump’s inauguration day or through residents asking what they can do to help others. “This community is ready to stand up. This community is ready to fight for our values,” Biss said. Jewish, Baptist, Muslim, Sikh and Christian faith leaders spoke in favor of Lake Street Church’s decision. “Some are arguing that this has nothing to do with faith or the work of religious people. There are those who are saying that we should back down, back off, let the government carry out its work,” said the Rev. Michael Nabors, senior pastor at Second Baptist Church in Evanston and president of the Evanston-North Shore Branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. “I wish churches and people of faith had stood (up) for Indigenous Americans when their lives were upended and their land was stolen by our government, but no one stood. And I wish that churches and religious people had stood for Africans and Black people during 240 years of evil slavery sanctioned by our government, but not enough churches and religious people stood,” Nabors continued. “The power of love always overpowers those with malcontent,” Nabors said. “May our country come to its senses and may goodness forever derail any initiative that inflicts pain and hurt. If a revolution for goodness and justice must start, let it begin in Evanston.” Imam Sheikh Hassan Aly said, “From the heart of Evanston, we reaffirm a truth that transcends borders and political rhetoric: every human life is sacred. This act of faith equals the timeless call of our religious traditions to protect the strangers, to defend the oppressed and to shelter those in need,” continued Aly, who is also Director of the Humanitarian Faith Initiative at Med Global Community members attend a meeting at Lake Street Church of Evanston on Jan. 27, 2025 with a multi-faith coalition of Evanston clergy to support the Evanston church’s proclamation of sanctuary in the face of the Trump administration’s plans to deport immigrants. (E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune) By the second day of Trump’s administration in 2025, the president overturned a 2011 policy of the U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement agency that barred agents from carrying out immigration enforcement in areas deemed sensitive, including places of worship, hospitals and schools. Woolf said he was unafraid of the change to the agency’s policy, as houses of worship have a history of establishing sanctuaries before being formally recognized by the law. “There was no ICE memo protecting the members of the sanctuary movement in the 1980s when they (houses of worship) decided that they were going to house people, specifically asylum seekers, coming from Central America,” Woolf said. “They were committed to leveraging their extensive privilege as an American house of worship in order to be able to resist what they felt were unjust laws. And that is what we’re doing here today.” Woolf said a family of five have been living in an apartment on the church’s grounds for 10 years. The church’s commitment to remaining as a sanctuary is “iron clad,” he said. How the church will be able to keep ICE agents, and any other federal agents, away from individuals if they come knocking is a trickier question, Woolf said, as there aren’t any national rulings at the federal level. He said open spaces, like the pews of the church, would likely be the least safe for immigrants, and private spaces in the church would be the most safe. Evanston Police Commander Ryan Glew said there has only been one apparent sighting of a federal immigration agent in Evanston in Trump’s first week back in office. He said a resident made a call to the department Sunday morning and reported what appeared to be Enforcement and Removal Operations agents in the 800 block of Main Street. According to Glew, the caller said the agents were at a residential building, and not at Park School, which is on the same block. Glew said the department and federal agencies have not been in contact with each other, either before or after the incident. ...read more read less
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