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A look at the plight of people seeking refuge from US-allied governments in Central America focuses on a Guatemalan family's journey through a new "underground railroad".

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00:00major funding for frontline is provided by the corporation for public broadcasting
00:11additional funding is provided by this station and other public television stations nationwide
00:16and by the chubb group of insurance companies for over 100 years providing worldwide business
00:22and personal insurance through independent agents and brokers
00:25from the texas border to the heartland of kansas these people are hiding refugees from central
00:36america many of them will admit that what they are really doing is opposing the president's policy
00:43in central america we have not only a moral obligation but a legal obligation to give refuge
00:50to anyone whose life is in danger tonight on frontline who should get sanctuary in america
01:00from the network of public television stations a presentation of kcts seattle
01:14wnet new york wpbt miami wtvs detroit and wgbh boston this is frontline
01:24with jessica savage
01:27a nation of immigrants that is what former president john kennedy called this country and that was some
01:35100 years after his irish great-grandfather came to boston massachusetts i guess that looking back far
01:42enough each of us in our own pasts can find a refugee who sought religious economic or personal
01:48freedom here in this new world well today many millions of people outside our borders are still
01:54trying to get in many are seeking to improve their lives the so-called economic refugees but many
02:01others are political refugees who seek refuge or asylum here in this country and that's our story
02:07tonight we're right now facing a massive influx of refugees from war-torn central america
02:13three weeks ago president reagan warned that a rejection of his central american policy would
02:19produce quote a tidal wave of refugees and so america our nation of immigrants now confronts troubling
02:28and painful questions how can we fairly equitably and consistently define and decide who may be granted
02:36sanctuary here sanctuary that's the title of tonight's frontline report
02:41it's produced and directed by hector galan and reported by june mesel i'll be back with a closing
02:48comment following the report
02:50the person driving up a highway attempting to transport an alien is a violation it's a felony violation
03:02we would prosecute we have decided that we are going to violate your law regarding harboring of aliens
03:10what you're seeing is an illegal operation it's organized by a network of churches and individuals
03:18its purpose is to smuggle central americans like this guatemalan family across the country
03:24church members say they're following an american tradition in the 1860s during the civil war
03:33an underground railroad protected and moved runaway slaves in defiance of a federal law
03:38this underground railroad is also a deliberate act of civil disobedience
03:43this time against the government's central american policies
03:47the churches call their movement sanctuary
03:56well
03:59pena
04:02no
04:04because
04:13you
04:14Keller
04:16yeah
04:18We tried legal aid, we tried raising enormous amounts of money for bond money, we tried
04:35to secretly aid Central American refugees and came to the conclusion that the problem,
04:41the essential problem, was a policy of the United States government which was resulting
04:46in the deaths of literally tens of thousands of people.
04:50The only way to change that policy was to tell the American people what was happening
04:55to refugees.
04:57Sometimes I do forgive.
04:59John Fyfe is the pastor at the Southside Presbyterian Church in Tucson, Arizona.
05:04It was the first church in the country to go public and declare itself a sanctuary for
05:09people fleeing Central America.
05:13Now there are nearly 60 churches across the country participating in the sanctuary network
05:17and breaking the law.
05:19They say in their defense that they are responding to a higher law than the government's.
05:28And we pray for those of our brothers and sisters in the church in El Salvador and Guatemala who
05:37bear witness every day with their lives.
05:42wars in Central America.
05:43Both Guatemala and El Salvador have been steeped in bloody civil wars since the late 1970s.
05:50Thousands have been killed in violence that has caused hundreds of thousands to flee their
05:54homelands and look for safety elsewhere.
06:00Many have come to the United States.
06:03Some are helped by John Fyfe's Underground Railroad.
06:07In the Arizona desert, a hundred miles north of Tucson, is a Guatemalan Indian family.
06:13They have been hiding in this trailer for six weeks, hiding from immigration, hoping not
06:17to get caught.
06:19Because they fear for their lives and for their family back home, they cover their faces for
06:24the camera, afraid to be identified.
06:27Armando, the father, explains why they fled Guatemala.
06:36I left my homeland not because I reject my country, but because of the situation there.
06:46The military began to burn houses and many more atrocities were committed.
06:54In the villages, we were called subversives by the military.
07:00Hundreds died.
07:02Not just a few, but hundreds.
07:07That is why we left, because we don't want problems.
07:12We want to live.
07:17Rosario, the mother, speaks some Spanish, but mostly Canjoval, the Indian dialect they spoke
07:23in the highlands of Guatemala.
07:28Their youngest son, Roberto, 13, is sick, with signs of tuberculosis or malaria.
07:36Their daughter, Guadalupe, is 17.
07:39She is married to a young man from her village, Miguel.
07:43He says he's afraid to go back because his brother was killed by the army.
07:51He and Guadalupe have brought their 10-month-old baby, Veronica.
07:54They say they want to give her the chance to grow up without war.
08:03Church organizers have arranged to take them out of Arizona and away from the border to
08:08a safer place.
08:09It's a 1,400-mile journey across four states to a safe house in Kansas.
08:17While the sanctuary movement includes many different religious groups from different parts
08:21of the country, it's united in its political beliefs.
08:25It's a wonderful opportunity for the church to act in deed, not simply in word.
08:29We're not praying for them.
08:30We're trying, in some ways, to enter into solidarity by concretely placing ourselves over and against
08:36our government who colludes in their persecution.
08:38Clearly colludes.
08:39These folks are clearly refugees, and since our government does not recognize them as refugees,
08:45we have to recognize them as such, and we have to declare that they truly are people
08:50in need.
08:51Just like if we were in that situation, we would want people to recognize that we have
08:55a need.
08:56So it's both our moral and political obligation to act on their behalf in this very modest
09:01way.
09:02The Catholic nuns will lead them on the first leg of their three-day journey.
09:22Although drivers will change along the route, Sister Mary Mulherick, a Mary Knoll nun from
09:27Chicago, will stay with them the entire distance.
09:33I know the situation of the Guatemalan people.
09:36I lived there for nine years, and I saw how they struggled.
09:40And I support their fight for life, and I'm still supporting it here, and I looked for
09:44a way to help them.
09:47And I found the sanctuary movement already existing here, and that's why I came to Phoenix, and
09:52I met these people.
09:55The family allowed Frontline to film their journey.
10:01It's a journey that began a year ago, when they left their village in the province of Huehuetenango
10:06in Guatemala.
10:08Since 1979, it is estimated that from 12,000 to 30,000 people have been killed in Guatemala.
10:14The Indian villages in the north have been special targets of government troops and bombs.
10:20Because of their proximity to guerrilla activities, the Indians are suspected of being guerrilla
10:25sympathizers or outright subversives.
10:29In Guatemala, whole villages no longer exist that were there a year ago.
10:35In Guatemala, the government and the army of Guatemala are carrying out a policy that I
10:40can accurately describe as genocide against the Indian people there.
10:48The U.S. government, which supports the government of Guatemala, says there is no policy of genocide.
10:55Human rights groups in this country disagree.
10:58They have accused the Guatemalan government of systematically murdering Indians.
11:04Rosario and Armando's village was destroyed by government troops last June.
11:12Before fleeing Guatemala, the family crossed the border into neighboring Mexico.
11:16They spent the next several months in a refugee camp, like this one, here in the Mexican state
11:22of Chiapas, along with 35,000 other Guatemalan Indians who had also fled their country.
11:29Then when Guatemalan helicopters bombed their camp, they changed camps.
11:34And finally, after three months in Chiapas, they joined the mass exodus north, traveling 1,600 miles
11:40across Mexico by foot and by bus.
11:44Near the U.S. border, they paid a professional smuggler to guide them across into Arizona.
11:51Now they are being guided again, not for money, but out of a sense of moral obligation.
11:57The chances of their legally being able to stay in this country are small.
12:01Because the U.S. government limits political asylum to people who can prove they are individual
12:07targets of persecution in their country.
12:15The government's standard excludes those who are fleeing a general state of violence or
12:19war.
12:25The sanctuary movement believes the government's strict interpretation violates what America has
12:30traditionally stood for, a place of refuge and sanctuary.
12:35So the family has chosen to go underground and avoid the battle about political asylum, about
12:42how decisions are made, and about who gets to stay.
12:49Elizabeth, New Jersey, September 1982.
13:01A boat flying the Polish flag is towed into the harbor.
13:04The boat had been in the Mediterranean, and the crew was supposed to deliver it back to Poland.
13:09Jarik Ruzovic and his three companions decided to turn their helm westward and cross the Atlantic
13:15to America.
13:17Why did you leave Poland?
13:19Because I was threatened to be imprisoned.
13:23By whom?
13:24By Polish police, because of my activity in Solidarity Trade Union.
13:34December 1981.
13:36Martial laws imposed in Poland.
13:38The government crackdown is designed to put an end to the activities of the Trade Union's
13:43Solidarity.
13:44Soon after, 11,000 Poles fled to the United States, having been accepted as refugees.
13:54Jarik Ruzovic, who now works in a chemical plant in New Jersey, came in without papers and
13:59had to apply for political asylum.
14:03The United States is well known in communistic countries for its fight for human rights.
14:11It's a pretty big and, I guess, well-deserved fame.
14:17So we knew that having no place to go, it would be the easiest to get asylum just in the United
14:28States.
14:30And as well, political asylum is supposed to be granted to people who are personally endangered
14:41by any sort of harassment or persecution in their own country.
14:49Jarik Ruzovic, a union activist, spoke out for what he believed in.
14:54So did Luis Dominguez, a high official in the Salvadoran government, a top agricultural
15:00engineer and one of the leaders of his government's land reform program, until he was fired in 1980
15:07for becoming an outspoken critic.
15:10He too sought sanctuary in the United States, hoping to get political asylum.
15:18Dominguez now works as a chauffeur in a New York suburb.
15:25Why did you leave El Salvador?
15:28Well I have to leave El Salvador because the life of my family was in danger, and my life
15:34too.
15:36Because I was working with the government and I criticized the agrarian reform project, and
15:42that's why they want to kill me.
15:46More than 40,000 people have been killed in El Salvador since the war began in 1979.
15:51It is a country where machine guns control the streets, where death squads operate, a war in
15:58which assassination and torture are a daily occurrence.
16:02Just no one in El Salvador escapes the terror.
16:07How did you know that they wanted to kill you?
16:09Well, several ways.
16:12The first one was a note, a letter I received, and after that some telephones, some telephone
16:22calls tell me about how I'm going to die and how my family is going to die too.
16:31What did the letter say, and who was it from?
16:34Well, the letter said, I have ten days to leave El Salvador, or to die.
16:45It belongs to the squad, or that squad.
16:54And this is a paramilitary from the right-hand side of El Salvador.
17:01And the same, the phone calls belong the same, the same agrupation.
17:11When you got this letter and these phone calls saying you'd be killed, did you believe it?
17:18Well, you have to believe it, because you are watching every day hundreds of deaths.
17:26You have to believe it.
17:27They are no kidding.
17:30Two years after he applied for political asylum, Luis Dominguez's application was denied.
17:37When did you get political asylum?
17:39Just a week after we arrived to the United States.
17:43Our case was pretty clear, apparently.
17:46You're very lucky.
17:48Yes, we realized that after a time.
17:51Were you surprised when you came here and your political asylum application was denied?
17:57Yes, because you always know that the United States is the example for the democracy and the human rights and all about.
18:12And you, and what they told you, they can give you political asylum, really is a big surprise.
18:22But a big surprise, because you never expect something like that.
18:28You expect something different.
18:31Luis Dominguez, political asylum, denied.
18:35Yara Krusevich, political asylum, granted.
18:39Why?
18:40There is a right to political asylum based on neutral criteria, and that's not the way the law is being implemented.
18:48It's not being followed, and that's a violation of the law.
18:51Arthur Helton is an immigration attorney with the Lawyers' Committee for International Human Rights.
18:56He also represents Luis Dominguez.
18:59The law, he says, is being violated is the 1980 Refugee Act.
19:04Before 1980, only people fleeing communist countries and certain areas of the Mideast were considered refugees.
19:12But the new law eliminated that favoritism.
19:14It said all nationalities must be treated alike.
19:18A uniform standard was established, which entitled anyone with a well-founded fear of persecution, to asylum.
19:24We find that asylum is awarded according to ideological grounds.
19:29Practitioners in the area will repeatedly emphasize that it's much easier for their clients who flee communist-dominated regimes to obtain asylum,
19:39while those who flee other totalitarian or repressive regimes, regimes which have notorious records of human rights abuses,
19:47are not a granted political asylum because, in part, there are reasons why our country would not want to grant political asylum.
19:54Alan Nelson is commissioner of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, INS.
20:00It is immigration that makes the final decision on who gets asylum.
20:04Do you think that INS is implementing the 1980 Refugee Act in a fair and equitable way, applying the same standard to all nationalities?
20:15Yes, we certainly intend and attempt to.
20:18There are individual cases.
20:19The determination made under the Refugee Act of 1980 is that it must be a case-by-case determination.
20:25You look at each case on its merits.
20:27So our district director or his staff that are involved make that attempt to analyze the facts
20:32and determine whether they think asylum is appropriate or not appropriate.
20:36The other agency involved in asylum is the State Department.
20:40It makes a recommendation to INS on every case.
20:44Elliot Abrams is assistant secretary of state for human rights and humanitarian affairs.
20:50You do not give special treatment for people from communist countries.
20:53You give treatment according to the degree of repression and the degree to which it is targeted on the individual,
20:59without reference to whether it's communist government, right-wing government, whatever.
21:03The big question is proof.
21:05How do people applying for political asylum convince the United States government they are telling the truth?
21:11Government officials would not discuss specific cases, only standard procedures.
21:16We have to try to figure out, is this a person who likes it here and has a decent job,
21:20and all of a sudden is inventing a past involvement with Solidarity, or is it true?
21:25We don't accept that as a prima facie case.
21:27You have to go behind it and say, when were you involved with Solidarity?
21:31Where, in what city in Poland?
21:33Did immigration ask you to prove that you were, in fact, a member of Solidarity?
21:43Well, if you, well, it was, what was said was that it is on me to prove that I was prosecuted.
21:57But I understand that just my statement and all my story was taken as a proof.
22:06And because, well, proof is something, it's a very, it's a word of very vast, large meaning.
22:18And you can hardly expect from people who fled from their country to have some material proofs of their, of their situation over there.
22:31This poll was never asked any of those questions.
22:34His asylum application was granted just like that?
22:37I don't believe that, because that's not the way we do it.
22:39So U.S. immigration just believed you?
22:42Yes, that's true.
22:44And apparently they considered my story are reliable.
22:49A lot of people have different reasons for saying different things.
22:52But I can tell you that when, that we reject lots and lots of applications from polls.
22:57We reject, in 1982 we were rejecting 91.7% of them.
23:02More recently, of course, we're accepting more, but still fewer than half.
23:06Still the majority of Polish asylum claims are rejected.
23:09So the notion that a poll files a claim and we stamp it approved is absolutely false.
23:14But a poll who comes here illegally, you do stamp, you will not be deported.
23:18Right now. That is to say for 1981, 1982, sure.
23:22Well, I mean, that's a big thing.
23:24It is not a permanent grant of the right to live in the United States.
23:28No, but it is for the time being under the present government.
23:31It's a lot better than being deported back home if you don't want to be, sure.
23:34Exactly.
23:35Sure.
23:36You brought up the phrase...
23:37And there are very good foreign policy reasons for doing that.
23:39There is nothing to suggest that Jara Krusevich was not a member of Solidarity or that he did not deserve political asylum.
23:50Most polls, however, don't need to apply for political asylum.
23:54That's because the U.S. government does not deport polls back to Poland.
23:58It is a special policy called Extended Voluntary Departure.
24:05For Salvadorans, however, there is no such blanket protection.
24:08The U.S. government does deport Salvadorans back to El Salvador.
24:12They must apply for political asylum and approve a well-founded fear of persecution.
24:18Did you save the death letter?
24:21No. This kind of letter is very difficult to save it.
24:26You destroy it, especially when you don't want your family knows about it.
24:33Do you expect a Salvadoran who's been threatened by the death squad to have a piece of paper...
24:38No, I don't expect to have a threat from the death squad.
24:41No, we don't expect that.
24:42But, again, we expect some kind of pattern in his life that might suggest that he or she has been involved in politics.
24:49Other Salvadorans presumably would know this. We can check in El Salvador.
24:54We ask the embassy a question like, this man claims that he has been threatened by a death squad.
25:01Is there any possible plausibility to it? What does it sound like? Does it sound like an effort to stay in the U.S.?
25:07The man at the American Embassy when Luis Dominguez was still in El Salvador was Ambassador Robert White, a career Foreign Service officer for 25 years.
25:16He was later fired by the Reagan administration for criticizing the administration's Central American policies.
25:23And I looked into the case and found that this man indeed had taken a prominent role in the agrarian reform and that he was objecting to the military corruption and the increasing militarization of the land reform and had been received death threats.
25:42And I clearly understood that this is normal procedure and believed the man's story.
25:51Does he deserve political asylum in this country?
25:53Oh, well, by any kind of humane criteria, even by the narrow criteria that are in operation today, he certainly deserves political asylum.
26:05The Reagan administration is accused of not granting asylum to many El Salvadorans because of its support for the Salvadoran government.
26:15We have every incentive to characterize the situation in El Salvador as an improving human rights situation.
26:23And for that reason, it would be inconsistent and embarrassing to our government and the government of El Salvador to award political asylum to lots of Salvadorans.
26:33Immigration is charged with letting foreign policy decide asylum, in part because the State Department, the foreign policy branch of the government, examines every case and then passes on its recommendation to INS.
26:46Do you follow the State Department recommendations?
26:49The State Department recommendations are usually followed, although they are not binding.
26:54It is the State Department that makes foreign policy. How do you then turn around and wipe out the foreign policy component?
27:01It's very easy. You take an oath of office. It says you're going to follow the law.
27:05You don't send somebody back to what looks like death or torture or prison because you think it'll make some crumb mad in a foreign ministry halfway around the world.
27:14That is, the accusation really is that State Department officers don't care who lives and dies.
27:19Career Foreign Service officers who've devoted their lives to the service of their country and frequently, remember, we're talking about the same kind of people who got killed in Beirut.
27:27That they don't really give a damn about who lives or dies. They look at these applications and they say,
27:32Oh, well, the Salvadoran government might get mad, so we'll just send that guy back.
27:36That's the basis of that accusation by whoever makes it, and it is a lie.
27:41Yet a government report, an in-house study prepared by senior officials at INS, accuses the government of sometimes applying different criteria to different nationalities.
27:52Well, your own report says that you do not apply the same standard to all nationalities.
27:59Well, we do apply the same standard. There clearly can be instances where that might not happen.
28:04So there can be some questions raised, but we certainly do not acknowledge that there's been any failure to apply fair standards.
28:11Yet the report concludes there has been. Page two of the summary.
28:16INS has been unable to implement fully the Refugee Act with regard to potential asylees. Page 59.
28:25Certain nationalities appear to benefit from presumptive status while others do not.
28:30The report goes on to state that Salvadorans must have a classic textbook case while others sometimes get favorable action without meeting a well-founded fear of persecution.
28:41That's false.
28:44This is a document prepared by senior officials at INS.
28:48I'm not having seen it, but I grant that, but I don't care who says it. It's false anyway.
28:55In 1982, only 6% of political asylum applications from Salvadorans were granted.
29:03We asked Elliott Abrams why so few.
29:06My sense is that from the Caribbean and Central America, the majority of people emigrating to the United States are not refugees.
29:16They are people seeking to build a better life for themselves by finding better employment.
29:21What you would call economic migrants.
29:23That's right.
29:25For Luis Dominguez, it is hard to make that case.
29:29Is it logical for anyone to assume that you would have come to the United States for better job and opportunity?
29:38No, I don't think so.
29:40No, I don't think so.
29:41Because the kind of job I am doing here is quite different than the job I can do in my country.
29:48Because in my country I am a professional, belongs to the middle class, and now here I am driving a cab.
29:57I think so, I belong to the lower class in this country.
30:04One of the reasons why they consider myself to being rather political than economical refugee was that I was pretty well off in Poland.
30:16What will you do if your appeal isn't granted?
30:20Well, really I don't know, because I can't come back to my country.
30:27If the United States denied my application for a political asylum, I had to find another country that they gave me the political asylum.
30:39Will you go back to El Salvador?
30:42No, not if there is no guarantee on our lives.
30:47Why are you crying?
30:52Because I get very emotional.
30:57I am very scared.
31:00I think.
31:02The first stop on the Underground Railroad is a safe house in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
31:21Unlike the Dominguez family, the Guatemalans go underground, because sanctuary organizers know that few Central Americans ever get asylum.
31:29Especially people who are fleeing civil war, especially people who are fleeing civil war.
31:36The sanctuary movement argues that these people are not economic migrants, saying that they are targets of persecution in Guatemala simply because they are Indians.
31:54This Quaker family has opened up its home to Central Americans on the Underground Railroad for two years.
32:01The driver who takes them on the next leg of their journey is also a Quaker.
32:05It is her first involvement with sanctuary, and for her, the decision to break the law was more difficult.
32:11For me, I know that the fine is $2,000 and that there is a possible jail term for transferring these people, and I was concerned because I have a young daughter and I also have a child on the way.
32:26And it is a consideration for me. I don't want to go to jail. But, you know, you have to do things sometimes that involve some risk. Or you may not be doing what you feel is right.
32:41If people knew, really, how oppressed these people were, then they would be likely to be involved in the same thing that we are doing.
32:56The government is accusing the Indians of aiding the guerrillas. But how do we know who the guerrillas are? They all look like government soldiers to us.
33:11Now, I'm sure some of them have given them food or other assistance. But the government has said that all the Indians are subversives.
33:27So they continue to blame us. And we are dying for something that is not our fault.
33:36We left Guatemala, our land, because we do not want to die. The military came down to our village in five helicopters, and it rained bullets and fire bombs.
33:57They killed and burned four women and their children. Everything burned. Clothes, corn, all our food. So we ran.
34:17Two weeks we traveled through the jungle, staying under trees.
34:20I would like to return to my village. And God willing, someday I will. I didn't want to come here. I have my crops there. My home is there.
34:41And it is abandoned.
34:48What is your hope?
34:50My hope is to someday return to my homeland and live there again.
34:56In Santa Fe, another relay. A carefully arranged transfer from one car to the next.
35:02A Presbyterian minister will take over as driver.
35:05Do you want to say goodbye to the baby?
35:08Do you want to give her a kiss?
35:10Okay. Good luck to you.
35:14So far, they have passed through two border states without being picked up by the border patrol.
35:28They have been lucky, much luckier than the thousands of their neighbors who never get this far.
35:39South Texas, along the Mexican border.
35:42How many do you got?
35:47Two of them.
35:48Okay, I see them.
35:50Let's go get them.
35:51For the past three years, the numbers escaping the violence of Central America have been increasing dramatically.
36:02We're probably looking at in excess of 6,000 illegal aliens a month.
36:08What we have noticed is a tremendous increase in the number of persons from Central America as opposed to people from Mexico.
36:15We've had an excess of 100% increase within the last year of persons from Central America.
36:25More than 1,000 Central Americans come into the country each month.
36:30But who can stay, and how does the United States government decide?
36:34One of our first questions is, why did you enter the United States? For what purpose?
36:39And the overwhelming majority of those people have answered to find a job.
36:41There wasn't any talk of persecution in their country. There wasn't any talk of any kind of reparations.
36:47That was their main reason for entering this country.
36:52There may be a reason for telling the border patrol that.
36:55According to sanctuary leaders, people fleeing authoritarian regimes don't advertise their opposition to the government.
37:02Where they come from, that could mean suicide.
37:04They are frightened to death of people in green uniforms who wear guns and are not about to say what jeopardy they're in to anyone who is in a position to return them to the Army of El Salvador and inform the Army of El Salvador why they're being returned and what they said to.
37:24This is Los Fresnos, a detention center in Texas in an isolated area 25 miles from the nearest city.
37:42It houses those illegal immigrants that get caught, either at the time they cross the border or after they've been living in the United States for a while.
37:51It is a kind of jail for nearly 600 men and women. The vast majority are from El Salvador and Guatemala.
37:58The government says most of them are here just to find work, economic migrants. They don't believe the majority are fleeing political persecution.
38:10Yet everyone we spoke to claims he left Central America, fearing for his life.
38:16It's very common for people to disappear. It happens all the time.
38:20How is anyone to know what happens to the individual? No one ever sees them again.
38:31I was accused of being a subversive and I received a black cross.
38:37Do you know what that is?
38:40It's a death squat letter. It had my name on it.
38:44It said how I was going to die and be beheaded.
38:47I received it at home. My family had to flee. But my brother didn't make it. He was killed. My father was killed as well. I escaped.
38:58When you pick up an illegal immigrant, you begin a process which can either lead to detention and sometimes can lead to deportation back to Salvador, Guatemala.
39:08How does that make you feel?
39:09It doesn't bother me.
39:11Because?
39:12Because I see no problem with it. Because I see the same people coming back.
39:16We have often been criticized for doing this thing.
39:21People have said, well, the minute they get off the airplane, they're gunned down.
39:25They're shot. They're tortured.
39:27Perhaps this goes on.
39:30But when I see the same people a month later coming back after they have been removed to Central American countries without any marks or scars on them, then I don't place that much credence on these statements that this thing happens.
39:44I don't think that the fact that a few of them make it back alive proves anything except that they were lucky.
39:52Lisa Brodiaga is an immigration attorney in Harlingen, Texas. She spends the better part of every day at the camp. She is the lawyer representing most of the Central Americans detained here.
40:04The organization she directs is Project Liberty, a 24-hour legal service that attempts to stop the deportation of thousands of Salvadorans and Guatemalans back to their countries.
40:17Through contributions, the office tries to raise enough money to post bond for the release of their clients, many of whom could otherwise not afford legal fees.
40:28Then she begins the process of applying for political asylum.
40:33We have not only a moral obligation but a legal obligation to give refuge to anyone whose life is in danger.
40:43There are some people that I've become very attached to and it hurts a great deal when they go back because I am so afraid that that person won't make it.
40:53Usually, I just sort of forget it because I can't dwell on it.
41:00I think that they are trying to keep down to an absolute minimum the number of people who can reach help so that they can deport as many people as possible.
41:10And when their lives are involved, that's a much higher priority than anything else for me.
41:16How many of the applications that you filed for political asylum have been granted?
41:20Not one.
41:21Not one.
41:25The volume of cases is enormous.
41:28The office has had to put all the names in a computer to keep track.
41:32Last year alone, Brodiaga represented 1,300 cases.
41:38For most, she is their one contact with the outside world.
41:42Although none of her clients has yet been awarded asylum, she keeps trying.
41:46It's purely political.
41:48They have lost touch either of the human values or of what asylum is supposed to mean.
41:55I can't return to El Salvador because my problem is this.
42:00If I return, I'll be killed either by the military or by the guerrillas.
42:05And that's the problem for the majority of the young people who are detained here.
42:10The problem most of these young men have in common is their age.
42:19They are of military age and their governments want them back home to fight.
42:23You must understand the mindset of the army of El Salvador.
42:30They assume that anyone who is young has fled either to avoid military service, which is considered subversive,
42:41or because they were with the guerrillas, which of course is subversive.
42:44So any young person of military age who has fled El Salvador and is being returned is automatically suspected of being a subversive.
42:56And in El Salvador, that's a death warrant. Anyone who is suspected is killed.
43:00Santana Chirino Amaya. He was 24 when the U.S. government deported him back to El Salvador in 1981.
43:10He was one of 10,000 Salvadorans our government deported that year.
43:15He was picked up outside of Washington for making a wrong turn at a traffic light.
43:20Since he was here illegally, he had no documents.
43:23So he was turned over to INS and eventually put on a plane home.
43:26His sister, Cristina Amaya, lives in Virginia.
43:31She remembers what happened after her brother was sent back.
43:35He was buried at 6 in the morning.
43:40My uncle found him the following day and dug him out.
43:46He had searched for him.
43:50All the time that he had disappeared.
43:57His body had been burned.
44:01His legs were tied.
44:05With steel wire.
44:09He was practically naked.
44:21With cigarette burns all over his body.
44:27And he had been beheaded.
44:31And he saw he had been beheaded.
44:38And how did you find out that he had been killed?
44:56He sent us the newspaper from El Salvador.
45:11You want to tell me horror stories?
45:28I can tell you many more.
45:30More horror stories cross this desk every day than you have probably read in the last month.
45:34The fact remains that not everybody in El Salvador has the right to live in America because that's not a nice country.
45:41It is not a nice country right now.
45:43It is one of the hundred not nice countries.
45:45And not everybody there has the right to live here.
45:49Last year, 6,000 Salvadorans were deported back to El Salvador.
45:54Sanctuary leaders say that given the human rights record of the Salvadoran military, no one should have to take that risk.
46:00I have said to human rights groups repeatedly, I've said it in reference to Haiti, said it in reference to El Salvador.
46:07Show me this pattern of which you speak.
46:10Show me not one case out of 10,000, that's not a pattern, that's a freak.
46:14Show me that the people we are sending back to Haiti or El Salvador are in fact being the targets of persecution.
46:22And you know what we'll do?
46:24We'll stop deporting people.
46:25There is never any documented evidence at the time the atrocity is going on.
46:32It is only much later that one is aware of the kind of human tragedy that's taken place.
46:39It's the same argument that they used to send Jewish refugees back to Nazi Germany prior to World War II in the 1930s.
46:45There's no documentation about what's going on.
46:48Even as late as 1944, our government was saying there's no documentation on what's happening to Jews in Germany.
46:56That's the nature of atrocity in our time and what we need to do is use good common sense rather than documentation.
47:02After her brother's death, Christina Amaya asked the U.S. government for political asylum.
47:10It was denied.
47:12We who are so safe and so secure behind our walls and our fences and our borders, help us to learn from them what it means to be your people.
47:36Having learned, O God, grant us defeat...
47:43It's kind of risky. People have said that to me.
47:46It wasn't that illegal.
47:47But, you know, when I've met the people, like, it's eight hours for me.
47:53But it's like the rest of their life, it's a chance they're taken.
47:57And I think they're doing it just because they want some freedom and just to be treated like human beings.
48:03It's not like human beings.
48:18Love you.
48:25I promise.
48:28I mean, I can't do it.
48:30I can't do it.
48:32Yeah.
48:33Okay, take her.
48:34Come on.
48:40We will worship, or shall we do?
48:44We will worship, or shall we do?
48:48We will love you with you,
48:52until we meet again.
48:55At 10.30 at night, the family reaches its final destination,
49:06a Catholic retreat house in Concordia, Kansas.
49:19The Sisters of St. Joseph have opened up their home.
49:23When they voted on whether to break the law,
49:25they did so without hesitation.
49:32The arrival of the Guatemalans, the nuns say,
49:35is a special moment in their lives.
49:40Like others involved in sanctuary,
49:42they say they hope their actions
49:44will help change the government's policies
49:46in Central America.
49:47In a prayer service the following morning,
49:57Armando expresses his gratitude.
49:58I did not think I had so many friends who cared for us.
50:10Thank you for everything that you have done.
50:13While the nuns provide refuge for the homeless,
50:18officials in Washington emphasize that what may appear to be well-meaning
50:22is still illegal.
50:24Is this sort of defiance of the law,
50:27because I think most would admit that there's no legal basis for a church sanctuary.
50:32They're basically saying we're going to flaunt the law and ignore it
50:36and almost want to be attacked.
50:39And we're making it clear we have no intention or desire
50:41of intruding on church property or that,
50:44so that's not going to happen.
50:46How are you doing?
50:47So far, no one involved in the sanctuary movement
50:49has been prosecuted.
50:51We have maintained from the very beginning
50:53that it is not the church which is in violation of the law,
50:57it is the Justice Department,
50:59and it is the United States Immigration and Naturalization Service,
51:03and it is the United States Border Patrol
51:05who are acting in deliberate violation of not only our own law,
51:10but of the law of the United Nations with regard to refugees.
51:14On the sanctuary question,
51:15I'd like to just ask some rhetorical questions,
51:18because obviously the people involved in the sanctuary movement
51:21are very well-meaning,
51:23and they think they are doing the right thing,
51:26and we respect that,
51:28and we would ask maybe some mutual respect
51:31for what we're trying to do also,
51:32and sometimes it's ironic from religious leaders
51:35that that doesn't always happen.
51:37But the rhetorical questions are,
51:38what is the real theory behind the sanctuary movement?
51:41And many of them will admit
51:43that what they are really doing
51:45is opposing the president's policy in Central America.
51:49The arguments continue,
51:51but a reality remains.
51:52While there are wars in an area so close to us,
51:56Central Americans will keep coming,
51:58and it seems clear that they are caught
51:59in a foreign policy debate.
52:01What the Guatemalans and Salvadorans are fleeing
52:06is political persecution,
52:09and even more,
52:11God help us,
52:12political persecution
52:14that in one sense is encouraged by the United States,
52:16because we're sending arms to these military,
52:20to the military of El Salvador,
52:22and yet we've abandoned any human rights considerations.
52:24In other words,
52:25we've never denied
52:26any kind of military assistance to El Salvador
52:29on the basis of human rights considerations,
52:31so they continue to kill people.
52:34We must not listen to those
52:36who would disarm our friends
52:37and allow Central America
52:39to be turned into a string
52:40of anti-American Marxist dictatorships.
52:42The result could be a tidal wave of refugees,
52:53and this time,
52:54they'll be feet people
52:55and not boat people,
52:57swarming into our country,
52:59seeking a safe haven
53:00from communist repression
53:01to our south.
53:03The numbers pose a challenge
53:05government officials must deal with,
53:07but if politics is allowed to decide
53:10who must leave and who can stay,
53:12then we will surely test
53:14both our legal responsibility
53:15and the moral commitment
53:17America has historically made
53:19toward those seeking refuge.
53:25And an update to this story.
53:28After reporter Massell's interview
53:30with Elliot Abrams and Luis Dominguez,
53:32he's the Salvadoran working as a chauffeur
53:34whose asylum request was rejected,
53:36he was invited by the State Department
53:38to resubmit his application for asylum.
53:40There are, however, no guarantees.
53:44A district court in Washington, D.C.
53:46is considering whether or not
53:47the government should grant
53:48extended voluntary departure status
53:50to Salvadorans in this country.
53:53And then later this year,
53:54the Supreme Court, for the first time,
53:56will be reviewing the Refugee Act of 1980,
53:59examining that basic question,
54:01what is the definition
54:02of a political refugee?
54:04Now, as for those people
54:07aiding in bringing to safety
54:08that Guatemalan family,
54:10or for as many people
54:11as there may be in this country
54:12that offer such help,
54:14there are many more
54:15who would rather those refugees
54:16remain on their own shores.
54:19Yes, there are those words
54:21written on the Statue of Liberty
54:22which symbolize our nation's ideal,
54:25a haven,
54:27a sanctuary for the oppressed,
54:29the huddled masses.
54:29But the sheer number
54:31of those huddled masses
54:33needing jobs
54:34is threatening to many of us.
54:37Yet as Thomas Paine wrote
54:38in his pamphlet Common Sense,
54:40freedom hath been hunted
54:41around the globe
54:42but rejoiced
54:44that America would be the nation
54:46to receive the fugitive.
54:48And that's something to think about
54:49in a nation that this month
54:51has celebrated 207 years
54:54of American freedom.
54:55Next week on Frontline,
55:00the subject,
55:01the Western world financial system.
55:03The question,
55:04how close might be its collapse?
55:07These are Western bankers,
55:10the world's moneylenders.
55:12These are the presidents
55:13of Brazil and Mexico,
55:15the world's largest debtors.
55:18Next on Frontline,
55:20a look at the crisis
55:21facing this White House task force.
55:23The moneylenders of the world
55:26are owed nearly $600 billion
55:28by developing countries
55:30which they can't collect.
55:33The financial crisis
55:35of the developing countries
55:37is in its infancy.
55:40And what is worse,
55:42each new crisis
55:43will be more difficult
55:44to deal with
55:45than the previous one.
55:46The program is called
55:48Moneylenders.
55:49It is next on Frontline.
55:52I'm Jessica Savage.
55:54I'm Jessica Savage.
55:54I'm Jessica Savage.
56:24Kevin Pike.
56:24Good night.
56:25THE END
56:55For a transcript of this program, please send $4 to Frontline, Box 322, Boston, Massachusetts, 02134.
57:12Frontline is produced for the Documentary Consortium by WGBH Boston, which is solely responsible for its content.
57:19Major funding for Frontline was provided by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
57:23Additional funding was provided by this station and other public television stations nationwide,
57:29and by the Chubb Group of Insurance Companies for over 100 years providing worldwide business and personal insurance through independent agents and brokers.
57:37For video cassette information about Frontline, write to PBS Video, Box 8092, Washington, D.C., 20024.
57:49END
58:05Amen.
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