POUGHKEEPSIE, NY — The Rev. John Fife, a founding member of the Sanctuary Movement for Latin American political refugees, will discuss "No More Deaths: Migrants and the U.S.-Mexico Borderlands," on Sunday, September 10, at 4:00 p.m., at Poughkeepsie's First Presbyterian Church, and again on Tuesday, September 12, at 5:30 p.m., in Rockefeller Hall room 200 on the Vassar campus. Both lectures are free and open to the public, and a discussion and reception will immediately follow each.
Rev. Fife helped found the Sanctuary Movement in the 1980s, a nationwide group that provided aid and shelter for Guatemalans, Nicaraguans, and Salvadorans fleeing political oppression. During his 35-year ministry at Southside Presbyterian Church in Tucson, AZ, Fife received national attention as a critic of the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), and he was tried and convicted for assisting illegal immigration into the U.S.
In 1992 Fife was elected Moderator of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA), the highest office in the denomination. He is now Pastor Emeritus of Southside Presbyterian, and more recently helped found No More Deaths, a coalition working to end the deaths of migrants in the Arizona-Sonora borderlands. Fife also remains active in other community-based work for social justice.
Rev. Fife's talk at Vassar is co-sponsored by the program in American Culture, the department of geology and geography and, and the Office of Religious and Spiritual Life.
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Individuals with disabilities requiring accommodations or information on accessibility should contact Campus Activities Office at (845) 437-5370. Without sufficient notice, appropriate space and/or assistance may not be available.
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