smugglers or samaritans in Tucson, Arizona: producing and contesting legal truth

Abstract

In 1985–86, 11 religious activists whose congregations had declared themselves sanctuaries for undocumented Salvadoran and Guatemalan refugees were tried in Tucson, Arizona, on alien‐smuggling charges. Although 8 of the 11 were convicted and although the verdicts were upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court, the social and legal significance of the trial, and of the sanctuary movement itself, has continued to be negotiated by sanctuary activists. Examining the events that led to this trial, the trial itself, and the trial's aftermath sheds light on how legal truth is produced and contested both within and outside of courtrooms. [power, resistance, truth, sanctuary, prosecution, law]

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