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Ruiz Martinez_ProQuestDissertation Submission2.14 MB
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Dissertation
Sanctuary, shelters, and the state: religion and immigration enforcement in the United States
University of Iowa
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), University of Iowa
Spring 2026
DOI: 10.25820/etd.008476
Abstract
This dissertation explores the relationship between religion and immigration enforcement in the United States, from the 1980s through 2025. The literature on religion and migration has largely focused on the “justice” work of religious activists. I attend to the history of religious solidarity with immigrants while also arguing that, in the United States, religion and immigration enforcement have coalesced in contradictory ways that ultimately reproduce the carceral logics underpinning immigration control. This dissertation thus combines historical and ethnographic research methods to explore two case studies: the sanctuary movement (1980-2021), and what I call the development of a religious network of migrant care (2014-2025).
In the 1980s, religious communities in the US-Mexico borderlands offered refuge to Central American migrants fleeing civil conflicts and repressive regimes and entering the United States irregularly, or without lawful permission. This became known as the sanctuary movement. Sanctuary activists argued that their religious convictions compelled them to offer immigrants refuge, even if their actions were at odds with the laws of the United States. This gave rise to a contestation over the role of religion in US public life, which unfolded through public declarations of sanctuary, media coverage of the movement, and courtrooms. Religious activists in the 1980s also argued that immigration agents should refrain from conducting enforcement inside churches. In 1993, the US Immigration and Naturalization Service published a memorandum that limited enforcement in places “used for religious worship,” affirming the arguments that churches should be “set apart” and allowing the agency to rebuild trust with the American public at a time when their image had been tarnished by high-profile scandals. This policy had the contradictory effect of legitimizing churches as places where migrants could be safe from apprehension, while effectively confining migrants in sanctuary to the same religious spaces that offered them refuge. The carceral logics of sanctuary under this policy became especially clear in the 21st century, when religious activism on immigration resurged in what came to be known as the New Sanctuary Movement (NSM).
In the early 2000s, a religious network of migrant care developed in response to federal immigration agencies’ increasing reliance on Alternatives to Detention (ATD) to surveil and discipline migrants who had entered the United States irregularly. As the pressure on immigration detention centers grew, immigration agencies released thousands of migrants who were detained near the border. They were released under ankle monitors or other requirements while continuing their removal proceedings in the interior of the country. Often, migrants were released by the US Border Patrol in large numbers near bus stations in border towns. These releases led to alarming narratives of a migrant “crisis.” Consequently, federal immigration agencies began to coordinate with religious organizations like Catholic Charities to manage the movement of immigrants. This allowed the Catholic Church to fulfill its theological commitments to working with immigrants and federal immigration agencies to expand their ATD program.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- Sanctuary, shelters, and the state: religion and immigration enforcement in the United States
- Creators
- Carlos Ruiz Martinez
- Contributors
- Jenna Supp-Montgomerie (Advisor)Lina-Maria Murillo (Advisor)Paul Dilley (Committee Member)Kathleen Holscher (Committee Member)Alyssa Maldonado-Estrada (Committee Member)
- Resource Type
- Dissertation
- Degree Awarded
- Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), University of Iowa
- Degree in
- Religious Studies
- Date degree season
- Spring 2026
- DOI
- 10.25820/etd.008476
- Publisher
- University of Iowa
- Number of pages
- ix, 242 pages
- Copyright
- Copyright 2026 Carlos Ruiz Martinez
- Language
- English
- Date submitted
- 04/23/2026
- Description illustrations
- Illustrations
- Description bibliographic
- Includes bibliographical references (pages 237-242).
- Public Abstract (ETD)
This study explores how religion and immigration enforcement have intersected in the United States from the 1980s to the present. Religious communities are often seen as defenders of immigrants. I show that religion can both support immigrants while simultaneously reinforcing the systems that surveil and control them.
I focus on two moments: the sanctuary movement and the more recent rise of religious migrant care networks. In the 1980s, religious communities along the US-Mexico border sheltered people fleeing violence in Central America. These activists argued that their faith required them to protect migrants, even when doing so conflicted with federal law. They also pushed to limit immigration enforcement in churches, and the Immigration and Naturalization Service implemented policies that affirmed these arguments. While this built trust, it also had unintended consequences. It confined immigrants to the very churches that were offering them refuge.
The sanctuary movement demonstrated both the protective potential and the limitations of religiously motivated aid. Over the next two decades, as immigration enforcement strategies evolved, a new form of religious involvement emerged. Since the early 2000s, immigration enforcement has increasingly relied on Alternatives to Detention (ATD), such as ankle monitors. As more migrants were released from detention under ATD, often with little support, federal agencies began partnering with religious organizations that could provide aid and manage the movement of released migrants who were now under state surveillance.
- Academic Unit
- Religious Studies
- Record Identifier
- 9985177076302771
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