The Houston Post                                                                                                                                        June 16, 1985

Thoughts on the Sanctuary Movement

Editor’s note: Jack Elder, a 41-year-old Vietnam veteran, went on trial Monday in Corpus Christi on charges of transporting illegal aliens. Elder, the director of Casa Oscar Romero in San Benito, is the second worker of the Catholic Church-supported facility to go on trial for helping refugees from El Salvador enter the country. His coworker, Stacey Lynn Merkt, was found guilty and given a probated sentence. A native of Connecticut, Elder lived for several years in San Antonio before moving to The Valley to work with refugees. Since Merkt’s trial, both have been arrested again on similar charges. They are part of the growing “Sanctuary” movement that helps Salvadorans remain in the country by housing them in churches, where officials are reluctant to apprehend them. Post reporter Juan R. Palomo interviewed Elder by telephone last week. The following is a portion of the interview:

Are you contending you did not break a law, or that you broke a law that is wrong?

I pleaded not guilty. I continue to maintain that I did not violate the law, either the letter or the spirit. The charge is transporting three illegal aliens. I’m saying that they aren’t illegal aliens and therefore the whole indictment is faulty.

In an editorial last year, The Post argued that citizens cannot select the laws they will obey.

I think the same responsibility they are putting on the burdens of the children also should be put on the shoulders of the government, that the government cannot selectively choose what it wishes to obey. International law says people fleeing man-made disaster – that is war, which is obviously going on and they’ll Salvador – are guaranteed certain rights.

There would be no need for all this apparatus to control migration were it not for the conditions in El Salvador, which are generating the refugees. Casa Romero would not have been established were it not for the fact there were a large number of refugees at the border. I would not be at the Casa Romero if there hadn’t been a Casa Romero, and refugees would not be at the border where not for the fact that there’s a civil war going on in their country.

U.S. Attorney Dan Hedges says the government is going only after the more blatant challenges of U.S. law.

The only challenge we may have attempted was by pleading not guilty. If that created a challenge, then I suppose it is. We are not like the professional coyotes. We’re not pleading guilty and plea bargaining, hoping for a fine so we can be out in the streets. We want to plead not guilty to bring up what the we think is the larger picture. We see clear attempts by the judge and authorities in general to kind of draw a curtain around El Salvador. They don’t want to confront the terrible atrocities, the pictures which show children victims of death squads. It’s very unpleasant, and it’s almost a natural reaction to not want to deal with it. We’re saying we have to deal with that because, in a sense in this country, we’re all responsible.

Hedges also says it’s not up to his office to draw the line as to whether Salvadorans are economic or political refugees.

But we are talking about a country whose own Air Force is bombing its own civilian population, whose army we are supporting to the tune of nearly $1 million a day to wage war against its own people. Something is clearly not right in El Salvador, and until we face up to our own participation in what could probably be called a slaughter, I think at least we have an obligation to those who are fleeing the situation. You can’t set a house on fire and then block the exit.

Hedges says he must prosecute people working with church groups because to do otherwise would be giving them preferential treatment based on religion and a violation of the First Amendment.

We’re not asking for preferential treatment. We are asking for the U.S to follow its own laws. Until he does that, he can expect one challenge after another.

Who are the people who come to Casa Romero?

The majority are Salvadorans, young men, primarily from the eastern department of El Salvador. We do have some women and children, some Hondurans and some Nicaraguans. Each group comes for its own reason. But the majority are from El Salvador, because they can no longer survive in their home territory.

You are now accepting Nicaraguans?

Yes, we are.

That’s a change in policy, isn’t it?

In practical terms, it’s not, because we’ve always accepted them. We’ve never turned them away but we have encouraged people who call who want to bring Nicaraguans here to take care of the Nicaraguans themselves. It’s very easy to do that because Nicaraguans generally have resources at their disposal, and they’re treated with more preferential treatment by our government. But we have had people here from Nicaragua, consistently at least for the last six months.

Many Americans think that because a moderate government was elected last spring in El Salvador, there has been an decrease in the activities of the death squads and in the number of other human rights violations, therefore there is no further need for political asylum.

First of all, they have to recognize that while José Napoleón Duarte was president during a previous term, four American churchwomen were murdered, Archbishop Oscar Romero was assassinated and the leadership of the FDR – the Frente Democrático Revolucionario – were rounded up and killed. Duarte has publicly stated he is unable to control the death squads. And the majority of the deaths and human rights violations are attributed to the armed forces, which should be under his control. You’ve got a situation where you’re taking a man in a white suit and throwing him in a cesspool and saying, “don’t get dirty.” That’s what happened to Duarte.

In an editorial, The Post said the United States cannot be a sanctuary for all those in the world who find themselves in unfortunate circumstances.

I’m disappointed in the wording of that because it’s like what Under Secretary of State Elliott Abrams claimed – that El Salvador is one of one hundred not-nice places in the world. Well, that’s not what we’re talking about. We’re talking about people finding bodies in streets that have been eaten by dogs, of kids who are starving to death in great numbers, of families separated. We’re not talking just about not-nice people. We’re talking about a country where war is going on as a result of our intervention. The editorial is stating the obvious. Of course, we cannot be a sanctuary for everyone. But as long as we don’t recognize the tie between our influence and what’s going on in Central America, particularly in El Salvador, we can’t absolve ourselves of the responsibility.

What is your religious background?

Essentially traditional Roman Catholic. Recently I’ve been able to describe no religious background as being a conversion process where the faith journey I was in was pretty much stalled for a number of years and it got started up again, almost with a vengeance, as a result of several events.

What were those events?

When I was in San Antonio, teaching school, I was involved with a volunteer group called Latin American Assistance. In 1980, on Thanksgiving Day, the leadership of the FDR, the people who petitioned the Salvadoran government for reform, we’re rounded up at a Jesuit high school in the middle of the day, taken out and tortured. Their mutilated bodies were found the next day. To me it showed clearly that the road through reform essentially led to mass repression and that the powers had no interest in any kind of compromise. A year later I met a Salvadoran woman who called me from the airport. I brought her to the house and she was very nervous. She had about 40 photographs of human rights violation victims. I realized this is the way of life in El Salvador, and that was another jolting experience.

And in the summer of 1983, I visited in Mexico. I took a long bus ride into Chiapas and ended up in the refugee camps along the Guatemalan border. All of a sudden refugees became a part of my life. There’s something about refugees that impressed me. Not the poverty of the situation, but the strength they have in spite of all their hardships.

I thought to myself, these refugees are a window to what’s going on in Guatemala. When I came here and started working with Salvadorans in the INS detention center, I said these refugees, too are a window to what’s happening in El Salvador. Coming in contact with them was a religious experience for me, a conversion experience. Since that time, I’ve been drawn back to religion. I have been taught, I’ve been tutored, I’ve been led, by the folks who have been coming out of El Salvador and Guatemala.

The argument has been made that as a Christian, you have an obligation to obey civil laws.

I’ve been trying to deal with that, and it’s not comfortable. I understand that what Hitler did was entirely legal and good Christians kept their mouths shut. It was the good people – the ones who dissented and resisted – who saved the soul of Germany. The French resistance under the Nazis provided the French with pride after the war was over, that there were people who did not buckle and to the Nazis.

I’m not saying I’m only following a higher law. We feel righteous – that we are doing the correct thing – but at the same time there is not even a call to civil disobedience. That’s never been our intent. We’ve never intended to break the law. If the U.S. were obeying its own laws, laws that it subscribes to in international conventions, there would be no question about this case: It would be dismissed outright.

If convicted, you face 15 years in jail and a $6,000 fine.

And 30 years in the other case.

Right. You have a family. What would that do to them?

That’s important, of course. Diane and I thought about that way back in April when I was arrested, that it was a possibility. I think it is a mistaken impression that you take a person’s freedom away if you put him in jail. Should I go to jail, I will feel very free, because I haven’t given up my principles. What happened to Diane and the kids – I can only think that, based on the support we’ve gotten through this pretrial, there would be no problem as far as her having the moral support to keep on working here at the Casa and raising the family. Diane made a good point recently. She said that if I was a Marine, stationed in Lebanon for 18 months and left my kids at home, people would say to them, “You ought to be proud of your father because he’s serving the country.” And should I have to go to jail, it’s the same thing.

Haven’t you already served your country, in Vietnam?

Yes, I was in the army. But the whole world of service is becoming more and more central to my life, and serving the refugees here is probably the most rewarding.

What was your children’s reaction to your arrest, and to what you’re going through right now?

Fortunately, three of them were asleep, so I could just go in and kiss them before I was taken away. Jesse, the oldest boy – 11 – was the only one who saw me handcuffed. It was a jarring experience for him. But he said he noticed that as I was frisked, handcuffed and went into kiss the other boys, a tear formed in the marshal’s eye. The three older boys were in court for the pretrial hearings.

I think Jesse maybe understood what is happening. But Devin and Rich, they were six and four, are still too young. The youngest is 15 months old. There are people who would also say I’m being irresponsible as a parent. But when you’re faced with evil you can’t ignore it. We’ve got to an obvious choice: ignore it or do something about it. I chose to do something about it. Unless we’re going to entirely abrogate all our responsibility as Christians and as American citizens, the time has come to do that.

You grew up in an upper middle-class conservative family. You had a nice home and a decent job in San Antonio. Do you regret leaving all that behind?

Not at all. My life is fuller than I ever thought it would be. I continue to be rewarded with good friends. My family is, of course, my best reward. And I have been able to live with them while I was working every day.

Did your Peace Corps experience in Latin America influence your thinking?

Very much so. Besides allowing me to live in Costa Rica for two years and travel in Central America, I was able to gain appreciation for another culture. I was able to gain sufficiency in another language. That’s another blessing I’m constantly thankful for. It’s broken down barriers and I have been able to help people of other nationalities. When I left Costa Rica, going back to Connecticut, I always thought that in future moves I would gravitate toward the South again. Sure enough, I went from upstate New York to Central Texas, and here to The Valley. I don’t know if I’ll ever go back to Central America, but certainly something was planted in me that has blossomed now into an ability to be able to care about – and fortunately be in a position to do something about – people in need from Central America.                      #