Quaker congregations file suit challenging new White House immigration policy
UPDATE on 2/11/2025: Another lawsuit was filed by a number of religious denominations and organizations, including two supporting bodies of BJC: Fellowship Southwest and Convención Bautista Hispana de Texas. Read more from Baptist News Global.
ORIGINAL POST:
One of the first actions of the new Trump administration has been the implementation of its controversial deportation program. In furtherance of that initiative, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced a new policy rescinding decades of immigration enforcement guidelines that had been designed to protect, among other things, religious free exercise.
The previous policy required the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to refrain from enforcement actions in or near “protected areas” where people receive or engage in “essential services or activities,” and where enforcement actions may have an effect on people’s willingness to be there and receive such essential services. The Biden administration policy, for example, listed medical facilities, schools, and houses of worship as examples of areas that should be protected from immigration enforcement for the well-being of the community.
By rescinding that policy, the Trump administration invited immigration officers into and around those sacred spaces. A new lawsuit filed by several Quaker congregations challenges that new policy as a violation of religious freedom protections under the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA), the freedom to associate under the First Amendment, and as a violation of various provisions of the Administrative Procedures Act.
Here are some key excerpts from the complaint:
Allowing armed government agents wearing ICE-emblazoned jackets to park outside a religious service and monitor who enters or to interrupt the service and drag a congregant out during the middle of worship is anathema to Quaker religious exercise. The very threat of that enforcement deters congregants from attending services, especially members of immigrant communities.
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[W]ithin days of DHS announcing the recission of the protected-areas policy, three of the largest Catholic organizations in the United States—the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, the Catholic Health Association of the United States, and Catholic Charities USA—stated publicly that, “[w]ith the mere rescission of the protected areas guidance,” they were “already witnessing reticence among immigrants to engage in daily life, including . . . attending religious services.” National Association of Evangelicals similarly addressed the new DHS policy, stating that “[e]ven the announcement of this policy has caused fear, deterring some from attending church.”
These fears are coming to fruition. On January 26, the first Sunday following implementation of the 2025 Policy, ICE agents attempted to enter Fuentede Vida Church in Tucker, Georgia, while its pastor was actively preaching to approximately 70 congregants. Fear of DHS’s new policy had led the church to lock its doors, so the agents waited outside until the congregant they sought—a father of two—exited the church.
The suit was filed in federal court in Maryland, and other groups are joining it. The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, which is one of BJC’s supporting bodies, joined the lawsuit this week, and this story continues to develop. Baptist News Global’s Mark Wingfield has additional background on this story. Stay tuned.
For more on the intersection of religious freedom and immigration, the Columbia Law, Rights & Religion project has a page of FAQs, and the National Immigration Law Center has a factsheet about the recission of protected areas policies.
