Is our country criminalizing mercy?
A conversation with 2025 Shurden Lecturer Sergio M. González

Focusing on sanctuary in an era of government repression of migrant justice, Dr. Sergio M. González will deliver BJC’s annual Walter B. and Kay W. Shurden Lectures on Religious Liberty and Separation of Church and State. 

A historian of U.S. immigration, labor and religion, Dr. González teaches at Marquette University and is a co-founder and former organizer for the Dane Sanctuary Coalition. He spoke with BJC to preview some of his topics.

You’ve spent years studying the sanctuary movement. When you look at what’s happening now — mass deportations, renewed attention on sanctuary spaces, people being sent to third countries — what connections do you see to the past?
The current immigration landscape echoes many concerns that sanctuary movements, both in the 1980s and across the 21st century, have confronted.

In the original movement of the 1980s, Christian and Jewish faith communities provided safe harbor to Central American asylum seekers fleeing U.S.-backed violence, as the federal government failed to grant them refuge as mandated by national and international laws. In the 2010s, meanwhile, houses of worship revived the concept of faith-based sanctuary to provide shelter to undocumented residents, many of whom had called this country their home for years.

Today, we see similar dynamics — mass and what feel like indiscriminate detention and deportations, often targeting the most vulnerable, as well as the outsourcing of asylum responsibilities to third countries. This reflects a continued attempt to externalize borders and criminalize migration, all of which is built upon over a century of U.S. military and economic intervention abroad and resurgent nativism at home. What’s different now is the scope and visibility of these attacks on undocumented residents as well as asylum seekers and refugees; deportations today affect a broader range of nationalities, and technology has amplified federal surveillance while making the threats and arrests against migrants ever more present on social media.

Across each of these eras however, grassroots responses have emerged in defiance, with sanctuary spaces once again today becoming vital sites of resistance and protection. The movement’s moral framework — emphasizing human dignity and solidarity — remains as relevant as ever. The enduring struggle, what sanctuary activists have continually referred to as a form of “sacred resistance,” highlights how sanctuary is not just a place but a political and ethical stance against unjust state policies.