Oregon church prepares to provide refuge to those facing deportation under Trump

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(24 Jan 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Portland, Oregon - 9 January 2025
1. Wide of Francisco Aguirre and Reverend W.J. Mark Knutson walk down the aisle of Augustana Lutheran Church’s sanctuary
2. Aguirre and Knutson in Augustana Lutheran Church’s sanctuary
3. Knutson approaches the altar
4. Knutson speaking from the altar
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Francisco Aguirre, immigrant rights advocate who previously sought sanctuary in the church while under threat of deportation for lacking legal status:
“The new administration coming in, it's a threat for the migrant community, and I don't feel safe. Not only because immigration could take me in custody any time, but also the racism that is coming out.”
6. Sign in church that says “sanctuary”
7. Stained glass windows
8. Close up of sign in church that says all countries of origin are welcome
9. SOUNDBITE (English), Francisco Aguirre, immigrant rights advocate who previously sought sanctuary in the church while under threat of deportation for lacking legal status:
“I want to feel free. I want to go where I want without the pressure that they will take me in custody. I want to go out of the house and be able to come back. I don’t want to open the door and start checking if everything it’s ok outside before I go out. I don’t want my family to be living in fear.”
10. Wide of Aguirre and Knutson approaching the room where Aguirre slept when he sought refuge in the church in 2014 while under threat of deportation.
11. Aguirre and Knutson open the doors of the room
12. Aguirre shows where his bed was in the room
13. Close up of Aguirre
14. SOUNDBITE (English), Reverend W.J. Mark Knutson, pastor of Augustana Lutheran Church:
“If 50 people showed up, 100, because suddenly they're afraid ICE is at the door, we’d of course bring them in and we'd quickly start working with the expertise we have in the community to to help get things settled, get people back out into a living situation. Think of 100 people using the same bathrooms, you know, same kitchen, same… that's a lot. If it was the worst, worst case scenario, which again… You could have a thousand people for overnight. One night. You’d be sleeping in a pew on top of other people, literally.”
15. Wide of Knutson in a room with a bed where people could sleep if they come to the church seeking refuge from deportation
16. Bed where people could sleep
17. SOUNBITE (English), Reverend W.J. Mark Knutson, pastor of Augustana Lutheran Church:
“I can't approach this in fear. There's no way. And I can't approach this with any malice in my heart. I can't approach this with any hate towards another person. That's just not who we are as people of faith. So you approach with love, you approach it with hope. You approach it feeling the best will come. But if you don't stand up, if you don't speak out, you don't stand in solidarity together, your siblings who are in peril suffer and can die.”
18. Exterior pan of the church
STORYLINE:
A pastor in Portland, Oregon, says his church is preparing to provide sanctuary to people lacking legal status who risk being removed from the country under President Donald Trump’s plans to conduct mass deportations.

Reverend W.J. Mark Knutson’s Augustana Lutheran Church is part of the sanctuary church movement and previously offered refuge to Francisco Aguirre, a member of the congregation who lived there for 81 days in 2014 to avoid deportation.

Aguirre, who has two children who are U.S. citizens, says he feels unsafe under the new Trump administration and that he doesn’t want his family living in fear.







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