ANN ARBOR, MI - Sylvia Nolasco-Rivers was 9 years old when she and her family fled El Salvador in the middle of a civil war in the early 1980s, escaping first to Mexico and then to the United States.

The 44-year-old owner of Pilar's Tamales, a popular Ann Arbor restaurant, still has vivid memories of those times, and gratitude for the safe sanctuary she was provided by people of faith in the U.S.

As local faith congregations in Washtenaw County team up as part of a new sanctuary movement to harbor undocumented immigrants facing deportation, Nolasco-Rivers is sharing her story of how the sanctuary movement in the 1980s changed the trajectory of her life and helped her escape violence and poverty.

Nolasco-Rivers spoke this week at the Church of the Good Shepherd in Ann Arbor as part of the public kickoff for the Washtenaw Congregational Sanctuary campaign.

She said the civil war in her country took the lives of many innocent people, including children, parents and grandparents.

"And all because the people of El Salvador wanted justice, wanted to have rights like the rest of the people there," she said. "We fought against the regiment that tried to keep the Salvadorian people down and continued to harm all people."

In the early 1980s, she said, her family organized to speak out against the Salvadorian government.

"Unfortunately, back in those days in El Salvador, if you spoke against the regiment and what the Salvadorian government was doing, you were either disappeared, you were murdered, and that was the way they dealt with the situation," she said. "They didn't want people standing up against them and saying, 'This is not OK. This is not right. We have the right to live a good life, a life with dignity.'

"So in '81, there was a massacre at my grandmother's house," she said. "They killed two of my uncles and wounded some of my family members, an aunt and a cousin. After that, that was the time where the rest of my family thought, 'What's there for us here in El Salvador? There's nothing.' So my aunt Pilar had migrated a couple of years before to Mexico, Mexico City, where she had lived for a couple of years. After my grandfather died, my mother said, 'Well, let's go to Mexico. Let's see what's there for us.' So my family came to Mexico to be with my aunt Pilar, not really knowing what our path would be."

Nolasco-Rivers said they thought they were going to settle somewhere in Mexico, but while they were there for a few months, there was some talk about a Quaker house in Eugene, Oregon, that was doing some work as part of a sanctuary movement.

"I was a small child, so I didn't really know and understand what all those things meant then, but I knew that my mother wanted something better for us, a better life. So, there was a Quaker house in Eugene, Oregon, that wanted to sponsor our family," she said, explaining a pastor from El Salvador knew of the movement.

"So, about three or four months into being in Mexico, there were young activists, young people from the United States, from Mexico, from other parts of the world, that said, 'We want to be able to give this family a better life, and many families,' so they risked their lives to smuggle families like mine, many of them," she said, adding activists helped them cross the border into Arizona and some went to jail.

"We were then, with open arms, welcomed in Phoenix, Arizona, by another Quaker house, and the community welcomed us with love, lots of hugs, lots of kisses, and glad that we were there," she said.

She said they stayed there for about a week and then her family went to Eugene, Oregon, where another Quaker house opened its doors.

"And we lived there for about nine months, being very open, publicly speaking against the regiment in El Salvador, and how the United States had something to do with that, really talking and speaking the truth of the injustice and the imbalance," she said.

As refugees, she said, they didn't have legal papers, so they stayed in sanctuary.

"The church, like this church, opened the doors to our family so that we could be safe, that we could be protected, while others in the community were mobilizing themselves and finding ways to keep our family here in this country legally," she said. "So, I am incredibly -- I have so much gratitude. I have a lot of joy in my heart, because what we're doing here together in this community is the right thing to do."

Nolasco-Rivers, who is now a U.S. citizen, has lived in the Ann Arbor area on and off for the last 20-plus years. She's married with three children and several years ago started Pilar's Tamales, serving up flavorful cuisine from her native El Salvador.

In addition to a sit-down restaurant at 2261 W. Liberty St., she does catering, and her food cart is a popular attraction at events such as the Homegrown Festival and visits to the Ann Arbor Farmers Market.

"I forever will always be grateful, because had it not been for people like you that care so deeply about others, like what's happening right now in this country, I don't know that I would be here," Nolasco-Rivers told those gathered at Church of the Good Shepherd on Wednesday, Sept. 6, for the sanctuary movement announcement.

"I don't know that I would have had the opportunity to have met this incredible man and had beautiful children ... who are my life. I had the opportunity to have a better life," she said.

"You know, I'll always have the pain. When you grow up in a war, when you grow up in poverty, there is always -- that will be with you, and that's OK. But I am so grateful to have the opportunity to be here alive, well, and to be able to do what we're doing here, which is the right thing -- to save other families, to keep them here in our communities.

"These families are just like mine and yours, working hard, doing the right thing, and this is the right thing. And so I am really grateful, I have lots of gratitude, and I thank God."

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The Church of the Good Shepherd, 2145 Independence Blvd., is the first place of worship in Washtenaw County to commit to opening its doors to provide sanctuary for immigrants as part of the campaign.

There's no one being housed yet, but the church says it's ready to provide a safe space for those facing deportation.

The Rev. Deborah Dean-Ware, pastor at Church of the Good Shepherd, spoke Wednesday against the Trump administration's efforts to increase the number of immigrants being sent back to countries they fled. She said God has a special and unique love for those fleeing violence, persecution, famine, poverty, war and economic hardship.

"Yesterday's news of the Justice Department's plans to rescind DACA is just the latest exploit in a long list of unjust actions taken toward immigrants," she said. "It is inhumane and cruel. It is unjust and lacks basic compassion. But unfortunately it is not surprising. Scapegoating and vilifying undocumented immigrants was the original sin of the Trump campaign for two years, and now it is the original sin of the Trump administration. As a local church pastor, it is my faith that requires me to speak out against these injustices.

"I am a Christian. I am a follower of Jesus. He is my mentor. He is my friend. He is my redeemer. It is my belief that if he was here today, he would be standing alongside us in solidarity with immigrants and refugees. You see, Jesus was the ultimate border crosser."

Dean-Ware said the church providing sanctuary is a symbolic and theological protection.

"Churches and synagogues and houses of worship have been offering sanctuary for centuries," she said, expressing hope that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Trump administration will honor that tradition and consider the church off limits.



Khaalid Walls, a Detroit-based ICE spokesman, said current ICE policy directs agency personnel to avoid conducting immigration enforcement activities at sensitive locations such as schools, hospitals and places of worship unless they have prior approval from a supervisor or in the event of exigent circumstances.

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