Because the United States supports the repressive regimes of El Salvador and Guatemala, the immigration service deports, to almost certain imprisonment or execution, political refugees from these countries, charges the author. In an engrossing history of private efforts to rescue these illegal aliens, in defiance of government policy, Davidson, a freelance writer, recounts the suffering that drives them to flee and to risk dangers in crossing our border and persecution by American authorities. She focuses on Quaker Jim Corbett, a retired rancher and cofounder of the Sanctuary Movement, who, despite crippling arthritis, has worked incessantly since 1980 to recruit rescue support and funds, and to establish what has become a national network of shelters among churches of all denominations. The movement's activities led to the trial in 1986 of Corbett and seven other Sanctuary workers by an Arizona federal court whose convictions are under appeal. Sanctuary, writes Davidson, continues to operate underground on behalf of victims of the Central American wars. (September)