The State - News from March 25, 1985

The Roman Catholic order of Franciscan priests will offer sanctuary, including housing and food, to refugees from El Salvador and Guatemala in seven Western states, the order announced. The order’s 60 communities in California, Nevada, Oregon, Washington, Utah, Arizona and New Mexico will supply, food, housing, financial, legal and medical aid, a spokesman said. Between 300,000 and 500,000 undocumented Central Americans, most from El Salvador, Guatemala and Nicaragua, are thought to be in the United States. The government considers most to be economic refugees, but leaders of the Sanctuary Movement say they are political refugees.