Three decades ago, nearly a million Salvadorans and Guatemalans fled repression and entered the U.S. clandestinely, including two refugee families that ended up in Leverett.
AMHERST -- The call to create "sanctuaries" for immigrants in places like the town and the University of Massachusetts has roots in the sanctuary movement of the 1980s, when nearly a million Salvadorans and Guatemalans fled repression and entered the U.S. clandestinely.
Back then, members of two religious groups in Tucson, Arizona, began smuggling people across the border and sheltering them in their churches, said UMass assistant sociology professor Millie Thayer.
"They took really big risks. These were felonies," she said.
The movement spread. According the Migration Policy Institute in Washington, more than 150 congregations openly defied the government, publicly sponsoring and supporting undocumented Salvadoran or Guatemalan refugee families. More than 1,000 other churches and Jewish congregations "endorsed the concept and practice of sanctuary," according to the institute website.
Two families were taken in by the Mount Toby Friends Meeting, a Quaker group in Leverett, Thayer said.
"It wasn't just humanitarian," she said. "Refugees would speak publicly about their experiences" to help people understand what they were escaping. "Churches didn't try to hide it. They wanted to raise issues."
The refugees' presence enriched the local community, Thayer said. "They gave the community more than (the community) gave to them," she said.
Today at UMass and in several communities around the state, advocates are pushing to create sanctuaries for immigrants, particularly those in the U.S. without authorization, in light of the campaign rhetoric and policies of President Donald Trump.
The term "sanctuary" is not an official designation, and is loosely defined. It typically refers to a community that does not honor or enforce 48-hour detainer requests from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in cases that are noncriminal and/or do not involve an individual who is the subject of a warrant.
The difference between the sanctuary movement of the 1980s and the one now, Thayer said, is that now there is "a much wider array of people who are needing shelter for a variety reasons."
"The kind of shelter being offered is much broader than just a place to stay," she said. "It's about protection and a willingness to (help) in that protection."
A similarity between the two movements, Thayer said, is a spirit of welcoming people in need.
"People still come to this country in part (because of) American policies and how they affected their country of origin," she said.
For example, she said, the North American Free Trade Agreement was supposed to curb immigration, but it made life harder for small farmers. Mexican manufacturers were driven out of business and Mexicans fled for better jobs and pay in the U.S.
Also, Thayer said, the U.S. invasion in Iraq in 2003 destabilized the area. "We have a role in producing conditions they're trying to escape," she said.
An executive order Trump signed in January barred nationals from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen from entering the U.S. for 90 days. The order also banned refugees from entering the country for 120 days, and halted the entry of Syrian refugees indefinitely.
The travel ban as been blocked by the courts, but the White House has indicated a new immigration order is forthcoming.
The UMass Amherst Sanctuary Campus Movement has been calling on the university to become a sanctuary since Trump was elected.
In a statement this week, UMass officials said they are committed to supporting all students, faculty and staff regardless of their immigration status. But they said UMass would not declare itself a sanctuary campus because that could "bring unwanted attention to vulnerable members of the campus community" and jeopardize the university's federal funding.
Thayer praised Chancellor Kumble Subbaswamy "for the actions he has committed to. But he hasn't gone as far as we'd like him to."
Sanctuary status would mean that federal immigration officials would not be allowed on camps and that the university would not collaborate with them unless the immigrants in question were felons, Thayer said.
"It takes a willingness to take some risks," she said.
Meanwhile, some area communities have already adopted or rejected sanctuary status or are debating the issue.
Northampton Mayor David Narkewicz signed an executive order in 2014 that directed the city's Police Department to not honor any noncriminal detainer requests from ICE.
Holyoke Mayor Alex Morse has said he will fight Trump's "toothless" plan to block federal funding to sanctuary cities. However, the Holyoke City Council this month pushed back and asked the city's Law Department for an opinion on whether Holyoke is actually a "sanctuary city."
Springfield Mayor Domenic Sarno has been clear in his opposition to sanctuary status. "We are not a sanctuary city, period," Sarno said in January.
In Easthampton, a City Council subcommittee voted Wednesday to withdraw a sanctuary city ordinance after a co-sponsor expressed regret that the matter had caused a rift in the community. The city solicitor, meanwhile, issued an opinion that the council has no authority over the Police Department.
Although sanctuary status appears to be a no-go for UMass, Thayer said it is significant that other campuses and communities are considering the move.
"The broader the movement gets, the more people that get involved, the more people who want to welcome immigrants and not drive them out (bolsters the movement)," she said. "It's really about policies to tip the balance in favor of humane policies."