Alexia Salvatierra

Reverend Alexia Salvatierra
Executive Director
Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice-California
Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice-Los Angeles

Reverend Alexia Salvatierra is determined to discredit what she calls the “great lie” that some people are worth more than others. An ordained pastor in the Evangelical Lutheran Church, she is a leader in the New Sanctuary Movement, dedicated to protecting immigrants in the US who face a range of human rights violations, from racial discrimination to deportation. The movement began as a single interfaith group that Alexia co-founded in California in 2007; within a year, it included more than 40 cities around the country. Alexia uses a “faith-rooted” model of organizing that calls on religious leaders and communities to join broader coalitions working for economic and social justice. Because the interfaith community unites people from all sectors of society and every region of the country, Alexia believes they can find common ground on this particular aspect of immigration reform. “We sustain our unity by reminding us all that we are family and everyone’s children are our children,” Alexia says.  

As executive director of Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice–Los Angeles, an organization of more than 800 religious leaders and congregations in Los Angeles County, Alexia advocates for economic justice at the local level, helping the urban poor in their struggles for living wages, health benefits, and safe working conditions. Alexia has been executive director of CLUE–LA since 2002 and since May 2007, she has also been executive director of CLUE–CA, which advocates at the state level. From 1994 to 2000 Alexia was a pastor at several California churches, where she ministered primarily to urban poor families and farm workers. At Iglesia Luterana Betel in Fresno, she started a gang prevention program for at-risk immigrant youth, and at St. John’s Lutheran Church in Oakland, she integrated her congregation with block parties, a community computer center, and an intergenerational community garden where the elderly taught at-risk youth to grow produce. From 1988 to 1991, she was founding director of the Berkeley Ecumenical Chaplaincy to the Homeless, a program that integrated social services, community organizing, pastoral care, and economic development. This program was replicated in six US cities. From 1986 to 1987, Alexia lived in the Philippines, where she trained urban poor women in Manila to serve as chaplains to their neighbors. She earned a master’s of divinity from the Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary in Berkeley, CA, and a bachelor’s degree in sociology and religious studies from the University of California Santa Cruz.


For more on Alexia Salvatierra:
Notes on the New Sanctuary Movement
By Stephanie Innes, Arizona Daily Star "Desert Beliefs"
July 14, 2008

Churches in New Sanctuary Movement
By Stephanie Innes, Arizona Daily Star
July 13, 2008

Consults, Advocates Meet to Address Raids, Deportations
By R.W. Dellinger, The Tidings
June 13, 2008

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