South Carolina Church Becomes The State's First Sanctuary Church

Clayton Memorial Unitarian Universalist Church, a teeny little church in Newberry, South Carolina will begin sheltering undocumented immigrants who face deportation orders despite the possible legal consequences from the federal government and the Asshat-In-Chief, making it the state’s first “sanctuary church,” flouting the federal law that makes it illegal to knowingly harbor undocumented immigrants.

Sam Stone, the church’s board chairman, and the congregation feel compelled by their faith to protect people who have been mistreated by an unjust immigration system:

“People have to live. They have to eat. They have to take care of their children, send them to school. We make it impossible for them to do these things. When they try to find a way to do those things, we prosecute them. Our faith just calls for us to treat people better than that.”

The church, with a congregation of just fifteen, will select and house up to two immigrants at a time in its fellowship hall, and help those immigrants hire attorneys to fight their deportation orders.

The good news is that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement [ICE] agents generally won’t raid churches or other “sensitive” locations, such as hospitals or schools, but the bad news is there is no law in this state to protect immigrants staying at Clayton Memorial, or to protect church members from being charged themselves.

But Stone, and the church, have decided that the risk is worth it because they would like to see wholesale immigration change in this country, starting with giving undocumented immigrants an easier path to citizenship so they don’t feel the need to come illegally.

Wouldn’t that be a better way to stem the tide of illegal immigration, rather than arresting adults and putting kids in cages?

Asking for a country …

The State

So Much For A Sideways South Carolina

I was still feeling a bit euphoric about the Sideways South Carolina [see post HERE] over the weekend and then this next story came up and shattered that LGBT dream.

Up in Newberry, South Carolina, nineteen-year-old Gregory Collins, a white man, was arrested for the murder of thirty-year-old Anthony Hill, a black man, after Collins allegedly shot Hill to death, and then tied the dead man to the back of his pick-up truck and dragged the body for ten miles.

State and local police, as well as the FBI, are trying to determine if this is a hate crime, even though here in non-sideways South Carolina we have no hate crimes laws..

Seriously.

Both men were employed by the Louis Rich poultry processing plant in Newberry County; Collins was hired in August, Hill in November. There is no evidence that the men had any issues while at work, and on the day of Hill's murder, the two spent most of the day together at Collins' trailer. Collins, upon his arrest, says the shooting was in self-defense.

Perhaps.

But what about tying a dead man to your bumper and dragging him down the road for ten miles. It's due to the dragging that police think this is a hate crime: "The issue of him dragging the body lends no credence to it being in self-defense," Sheriff Lee Foster said. "We do not know what possessed this individual to drag Mr. Hill for 10 miles."

Melissa Bookman, a neighbor of Gregory Collins', said she saw the two men "sitting on the porch that day drinking beer...[looking]...relaxed."

But then Collins allegedly shot Hill in the head; and then hauled Hill's body outside, tied a nylon rope around it and dragged it behind his pickup, until the rope snapped. Then he left the body by the side of the road and went home. When a passing motorist saw the body, and notified authorities, they followed a ten-mile trail of blood and body parts down the highway and back to Gregory Collins' front door.

Just another day.

Another sick day and euphoria turns to tears.