Stacey Merkt

Stacey Merkt (born 1954) is an American human rights activist imprisoned for her work on behalf of the Sanctuary movement.[1] In 1984 she became a controversial national figure and part of a cause celébre for helping migrants from El Salvador seek refuge in the United States.[2] She went on to found


Merkt was volunteering at the Casa Óscar Romero shelter in San Benito, Texas, as a lay Methodist in a Catholic and interfaith organization.[3] On February 17 she and a nun, sister Dianne Muhlenkemp, and Dallas Times Herald reporter Jack Fischer were stopped while driving an undocumented woman, man, and baby who faced deportation procedures to apply for asylum, which was not possible where they were living.[4] All three Americans were arrested and charged with transporting illegal aliens.[5] Charges against the other two were dropped, and Merkt received a 90-day suspended sentence.[6] She was re-arrested along with Jack Elder the following December for transporting two adults and three children for the same purpose, and after a trial was sentenced to 179 days in jail.[7] Even though she was pregnant at the time, she served time in Harlingen, Texas, but was released in April of 1987 because of complications with the pregnancy, and she completed the remaining 83 days of her sentence at home under house arrest.[8]

References

  1. ^ "'Sanctuary' Worker Convicted in Alien Trial". The New York Times. May 15, 1984. pp. A14.
  2. ^ Kemper, Vicki (August 1, 1987). "Innocent in the Eyes of God". Sojourners.
  3. ^ Reinhold, Robert (June 28, 1984). "Churches and U. S. Clash on Alien Sanctuary". The New York Times. pp. A1.
  4. ^ Collier, Elizabeth W.; Strain, Charles R., eds. (2014). Religious and Ethical Perspectives on Global Migration. New York: Bloomsbury. p. 261. ISBN 979-8-216-27314-1.
  5. ^ Hing, Bill Ong (2019). American Presidents, Deportations, and Human Rights Violations: From Carter to Trump. New York: Cambridge University Press. p. 256. ISBN 978-1-108-47228-9.
  6. ^ Davidson, Miriam (October 12, 2021). Convictions of the Heart: Jim Corbett and the Sanctuary Movement. Tucson, Arizona: University of Arizona Press. p. 101. ISBN 978-0-8165-4678-7.
  7. ^ DiCanio, Margaret B. (2005). Encyclopedia of American Activism: 1960 to the Present. Open Road. p. 405. ISBN 978-0-595-34951-7.
  8. ^ Merkt, Stacey (April 2, 1987). "The Cost of Resurrection". Sojourners.
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