Religious Groups Push Back on Migrant Raids

Federal lawsuit seeks to roll back giving immigration agents more access to houses of worship
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Feb 11, 2025 8:59 AM CST
Dozens of Religious Groups Sue Over Migrant Raids
A congregant kneels in prayer at the Centro Cristiano El Pan De Vida in Kissimmee, Florida, on Feb. 2, 2025.   (AP Photo/Alan Youngblood)

More than two dozen Christian and Jewish groups representing millions of Americans—ranging from the Episcopal Church and the Union for Reform Judaism, to the Mennonites and Unitarian Universalists—filed a federal lawsuit Tuesday challenging a Trump administration move giving immigration agents more leeway to make arrests in houses of worship. The lawsuit, filed in US District Court in Washington, contends the new policy is spreading fear of raids, thus lowering attendance at worship services and other church programs, reports the AP. The result, says the suit, infringes on the groups' religious freedom—namely, their ability to minister to migrants, including those in the US illegally.

  • The new lawsuit expands on some of the arguments made in a similar lawsuit filed Jan. 27 by five Quaker congregations and later joined by the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship and a Sikh temple. That suit is currently pending in US District Court in Maryland.

  • There was no immediate Trump administration response to the new complaint, which names the Department of Homeland Security and its immigration enforcement agencies as defendants. However, a memo filed Friday by the DOJ, opposing the thrust of the Quaker lawsuit, said that immigration enforcement affecting houses of worship had been permitted for decades, and that the new policy announced in January simply said field agents—using "common sense" and "discretion"—could now conduct such operations without pre-approval from a supervisor.
  • Prior to the recent Trump administration change, immigration agents generally needed a judicial warrant or other special authorization to conduct operations at houses of worship and other "sensitive locations" such as schools and hospitals, per Kelsi Corkran, a Georgetown University attorney who's lead counsel for the lawsuit. "Now it's go anywhere, anytime," she says.
  • Many conservative faith leaders and legal experts don't share concerns about the new arrest policy. "Places of worship are for worship and are not sanctuaries for illegal activity or for harboring people engaged in illegal activity," said Mat Staver, founder of the conservative Christian legal organization Liberty Counsel. "This is not a matter of religious freedom."
  • "We have immigrants, refugees, people who are documented and undocumented," said the Most Rev. Sean Rowe, presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church. "We cannot worship freely if some of us are living in fear. By joining this lawsuit, we're seeking ... to follow Jesus' command to love our neighbors as ourselves." More here.
(More immigration stories.)

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