The Wellington Avenue Church of Christ was part of the Sanctuary Movement, an effort by religious institutions to help Salvadoran refugees who entered the U.S. illegally between the 1970s and early 1990s to escape Civil War.

Salvadorans have long been part of the Chicago community. A steady stream of middle and upper-class Salvadorans made their way to Chicago between the 1920s and 1950s, concentrating settlement in neighborhoods on Chicago's north side. Some have since moved to the suburbs, but Salvadoran enclaves and culture continue to have a strong presence in the city.

It was to these established suburban and urban havens, as well as others like it around the U.S., where Salvadorans (and some Guatemalans) fled to during the war. The vast majority of refugees entered the U.S. through the Mexican border as undocumented immigrants and struggled to support themselves once they arrived at their destinations. A group of Chicago churches and synagogues organized the Sanctuary Movement to provide shelter and assistance to illegal Salvadoran immigrants in danger of being deported. These religious institutions would eventually band together in 1987 to form the Chicago Metropolitan Sanctuary Alliance. The Alliance helped to organize a kind of underground railroad to help refugees reach Chicago from their points of entry along the Mexican border. Sympathetic advocacy groups in the U.S. also organized to protest the U.S. government's refusal to give refugees political asylum.

Since then, Salvadorans and Guatemalans across Chicago have opened aid centers to help members of their communities, many of whom fear seeking social services from the U.S. government because of their undocumented status. Today, documented and undocumented Salvadoran and Guatemalan immigrants living in Chicago are concentrated in Rogers Park, Albany Park, Logan Square, and Edgewater.

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