ABSTRACT
In mid-October 2014, Arturo Armando Hernndez Garcia sought sanctuary in a basement room at the First Unitarian Church of Denver, Colorado. Facing deportation orders and impending separation from his wife and two daughters, the youngest of whom is a United States (US) citizen, Hernndez Garcia found temporary refuge in a sacred space, a setting where Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) would most likely not arrest him because of its mandate to avoid raids in schools and places of worship. A NSM tool kit from 2007, for instance, outlines the criteria for 'appropriate' sanctuary seekers. The tool kit's articulation of how to craft and sustain sacred squatting is illustrative for several reasons. First off, rather than catalyzing religious spaces as sites of politics and social justice, as stressed in public narratives from faith communities, this internal document highlights the need to recruit people into sanctuary who are seen as comprehensible for and relatable to the broader faith community.
