The Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) bolstered Hobby Lobby’s successful challenge to the Obamacare contraceptive mandate. Now, two college professors argue RFRA can provide a shield for businesses supporting undocumented immigrants.

Inara Scott, an assistant professor in Oregon State University’s business college, and Elizabeth Brown, an assistant law professor at Bentley University in Massachusetts, studied the 1980s sanctuary movement. Back then, various congregations pledged to offer housing, support, and assistance to Central American refugees fleeing civil conflicts.

Bringing the issue to current day, Scott and Brown also looked at the sanctuary movement spurred by the Trump Administration’s deportation policies. While not necessarily as closely tied to religious tradition, Scott said many participants feel compelled to act to protect vulnerable people from persecution.

In an article for the University of Pennsylvania’s Journal of Constitutional Law, the professors coined the term, “sanctuary corporation,” to describe a company protecting the rights of undocumented immigrants. 

“I think we are in very unpredictable and unusual times,” Scott told the Corvallis (Oregon) Gazette-Times. “It’s probably more likely now than it was a year ago that a business owner might say this system is so broken that I can’t morally participate in it.”