Faith vs. Policy: Religious Groups Sue Trump Administration Over Immigration Crackdown at Houses of Worship

The lawsuit, filed by groups including the Mennonite Church USA, the African Methodist Episcopal Church, the Central Conference of American Rabbis and Friends General Conference, named the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, U.S. Customs and Border Protection and CBP Acting Commissioner Pete Flores, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and ICE Acting Director Caleb Vitello as defendants.

The 80-page complaint filed Tuesday declares that the plaintiffs, while religiously diverse, are “unified on a fundamental belief: Every human being, regardless of birthplace, is a child of God worthy of dignity, care, and love.”

“Welcoming the stranger, or immigrant, is thus a central precept of their faith practices,” the filing said.

The central concept of the lawsuit is that President Donald Trump’s hardline immigration enforcement policies infringe on the groups’ religious freedom in that it interferes with their ability to serve their respective congregations. The filing argued that places of worship have historically been considered “sensitive locations” by DHS and ICE, and as such, would only be invaded in a narrow set of circumstances. As a result of the administration rescission of that practice, the plaintiffs said, they are seeing decreased worship attendance due to fear of immigration enforcement actions.

“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 filing said.

Plaintiffs argued that the DHS authorization of immigration enforcement action at places of worship absent exigent circumstances or a judicial warrant violates their rights under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act and the First Amendment.

Further, they argued, DHS’s “abrupt rescission of its sensitive locations policy” is illegal in that under federal law, agencies are required to reasonably explain their rationale before adopting a new policy.

“DHS made no attempt to engage in such a considered approach,” the filing read. Rather, plaintiffs contend, DHS simply “declared” that it would “no longer” allow “murders [sic] and rapists” to “hide in America’s schools and churches,” without providing any evidence that the previous policy had allowed criminals to hide in such places.

The filing noted that “multiple administrations of both major political parties [have] recognized the sanctity of houses of worship and the need to abstain from violating those sacred spaces, absent compelling and unusual circumstances,” and that the Trump administration “ignored the serious harms that will befall communities of faith and those they serve if the government now is free to conduct immigration enforcement actions at places of worship and during religious ceremonies.”

The lawsuit comes just one day after Pope Francis penned a letter to U.S. bishops denouncing the “major crisis” caused by the Trump administration’s plans for mass deportations.

“The rightly formed conscience cannot fail to make a critical judgment and express its disagreement with any measure that tacitly or explicitly identifies the illegal status of some migrants with criminality,” the pope wrote.

[T]he act of deporting people who in many cases have left their own land for reasons of extreme poverty, insecurity, exploitation, persecution or serious deterioration of the environment, damages the dignity of many men and women, and of entire families, and places them in a state of particular vulnerability and defenselessness,” he warned in the letter.

You can read the full complaint here.