Sanctuary Santa Cruz

Sanctuary Santa Cruz focuses on the local history of the sanctuary movement from the 1980s to the present as a way of connecting Santa Cruz to the world. Sanctuary spaces emerged as critical zones where local communities directly challenged federal and state authority, creating arenas of refuge and protected environments for migrants displaced by genocidal U.S.-backed wars and neoliberal U.S. trade policy in Latin America.

By tracing the evolution of local organizing that resisted draconian immigration policies during the Reagan era, this project asks how local migrant justice struggles have helped to lay bare the entangled geographies of U.S. imperialism. By adopting a transnational political lens toward migrant justice work in Santa Cruz and Northern California, connecting “here” to “there,” this research documents changes in the local movement over the years, exploring how organizers responded to U.S. interventionism and gatekeeping policies and practices during and after the Cold War. Interviews with organizers provide this context while disclosing the historical and cultural wealth of people’s struggles.