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CNA Staff, Feb 11, 2025 / 13:05 pm
A coalition of more than two dozen religious groups is suing the White House over its policy allowing immigration officers to arrest suspected illegal immigrants in houses of worship and other “sensitive locations.”
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) under President Donald Trump last month rescinded Biden-era guidelines that required Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents to seek their superior’s approval before arresting people at or near “sensitive locations” such as churches, hospitals, or schools.
The repealed rules, earlier versions of which date to 2011, precluded ICE agents from carrying out immigration enforcement actions in locations like hospitals, places of worship, schools, or during events such as weddings or parades unless there is an urgent need, such as a person who poses an imminent threat or if the agents have sought higher approval to do so.
A DHS spokesman said last month that the repeal of the policy meant that “criminals will no longer be able to hide in America’s schools and churches to avoid arrest.”
In their lawsuit, filed Tuesday at U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., the 27 religious groups, including the Mennonite Church, the Episcopal Church, the Friends General Conference, and several Jewish groups including the New York-based Rabbinical Assembly, argue that the enforcement of immigration arrests in churches is “substantially burdening the religious exercise” of the plaintiffs’ congregations and members.
“Congregations are experiencing decreases in worship attendance and social services participation due to fear of immigration enforcement action,” the suit says.
“For the vulnerable congregants who continue to attend worship services, congregations must choose between either exposing them to arrest or undertaking security measures that are in direct tension with their religious duties of welcome and hospitality.”
The suit further argues that DHS “flout[ed] legal constraints on agency action” by rushing to repeal the rule too quickly, a move the plaintiffs claim violated the federal Administrative Procedure Act.
The suit, which names DHS, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, argues that the DHS action violates the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act as well as the First Amendment and the federal administrative rule.
The Trump administration has moved quickly to implement far-reaching and aggressive immigration policies upon President Donald Trump’s taking office last month, a move that has drawn criticism from some Catholics.
On Tuesday Pope Francis wrote to the U.S. bishops arguing that immigration laws and policies should be subordinated to the dignified treatment of people, especially the most vulnerable.
The letter, which was widely viewed as a rebuke to the Trump administration, acknowledged that the just treatment of immigrants does not impede the development of policies to regulate orderly and legal migration.
But “what is built on the basis of force and not on the truth about the equal dignity of every human being begins badly and will end badly,” the pope argued.
Following Trump’s executive orders on immigration, numerous U.S. bishops have responded by similarly calling for a more comprehensive and humane approach to immigration policy that respects the dignity of migrants and refugees.
Bishops have continued to speak out on immigration periodically over the last few weeks. Minnesota’s Catholic bishops, for instance, released a statement Feb. 7 advocating “comprehensive immigration reform to fix our broken system” while urging the Trump administration to refrain from deporting migrants without criminal records.
The bishops of Charlotte and Raleigh, North Carolina, meanwhile, last week issued a joint statement acknowledging “room for disagreement and discussion with respect to immigration policy” while arguing for “the recognition that immigrants, as members of God’s human family, are deserving of and must be granted the appropriate dignity as our brothers and sisters in the Lord.”
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Daniel Payne is a senior editor at Catholic News Agency. He previously worked at the College Fix and Just the News. He lives in Virginia with his family.
