H-2171              _______________________________________________

                                   SUBSTITUTE HOUSE JOINT MEMORIAL NO. 24

                        _______________________________________________

State of Washington                              49th Legislature                              1985 Regular Session

By House Committee on State Government (originally sponsored by Representatives Belcher, Allen, Unsoeld, D. Nelson, Brooks, Wang, Cole, Todd, Lewis, Lux, Niemi, Locke, Jacobsen, Miller and Dellwo)

Read first time 3/4/85 and passed to Committee on Rules.

TO THE HONORABLE RONALD REAGAN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, AND TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE SENATE AND THE SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, AND TO THE SENATE AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE UNITED STATES, IN CONGRESS ASSEMBLED:

          We, your Memorialists, the Senate and House of Representatives of the State of Washington, in legislative session assembled, respectfully represent and petition as follows:

          WHEREAS, The United States Congress passed the Refugee Act of 1980 aligning the United States with the United Nations protocol on refugees, which prohibits the deportation of people who are faced with persecution in their country; and

          WHEREAS, The United Nations High Commission on Refugees and Canada, Costa Rica, and numerous other nations and organizations have declared that people fleeing El Salvador and Guatemala are  political refugees; and

          WHEREAS, There are thirty-five refugees in public sanctuary in the state of Washington and more than one hundred fifty churches and synagogues in the United States which have been compelled by humanitarian concerns to provide sanctuary; and

          WHEREAS, Pilar Martinez was abducted with her daughter and beaten, raped, and tortured by the forces of her own government in El Salvador, and her brother-in-law was killed by the death squads which operate in El Salvador with impunity, and yet in spite of these circumstances she is still considered an illegal alien; and

          WHEREAS, Pilar Martinez was granted public sanctuary in a Washington state church because of the obvious moral necessity of such an action; and

          WHEREAS, Pilar Martinez on January 14th, 1985, was arrested by United States immigration officials along with her sister and their five children, all of whom now face deportation to the land they fled in terror; and

          WHEREAS, Other Central American refugees in sanctuary in Washington churches and across the country justifiably fear for their lives should they be returned home; and

          WHEREAS, As citizens of the state of Washington and as citizens of the United States we have a humanitarian and moral responsibility to speak out on behalf of these fellow human beings; and

          WHEREAS, Sixteen citizens have been arrested for aiding these refugees by following the dictates of their conscience;

          NOW, THEREFORE, Your Memorialists respectfully pray that the United States government legalize and support the Sanctuary Movement.

          BE IT RESOLVED, That copies of this Memorial be immediately transmitted to the Honorable Ronald Reagan, President of the United States, the President of the United States Senate, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, and each member of Congress from the State of Washington.