Religious groups suing to prevent ICE raids in houses of worship

Twenty-seven organizations representing Jewish and Christian-based denominations filed a federal lawsuit Tuesday against President Donald Trump’s administration, asking a judge to prevent immigration enforcement actions in houses of worship.

As part of the administration’s crackdown on undocumented immigrants, the Department of Homeland Security rescinded a directive that limited federal agents’ ability to conduct immigration enforcement actions in sensitive locations such as churches, schools, and hospitals.

The complaint, filed in the District of Columbia, says that making houses of worship fair game for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids violates the religious rights of the suing denominations.

“An immigration enforcement action during worship services, ministry work, or other congregational activities would be devastating to their religious practice,” the complaint said. “It would shatter the consecrated space of sanctuary, thwart communal worship, and undermine the social service outreach that is central to religious expression and spiritual practice for Plaintiffs’ congregations and members.”

Allowing officers to enter sensitive locations protects Americans from threats such as gang members, said Tricia McLaughlin, U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s assistant secretary for public affairs.

“These criminals knew law enforcement couldn’t go inside under the previous Administration,” McLaughlin said in a statement.

Officers will use discretion and will require approval by supervisors to enter a house of worship or school, McLaughlin. “We expect these to be extremely rare.”

But revoking the directive on sensitive locations has already been having an impact, and not only on worship, religious leaders said on a call Tuesday afternoon. Many of the congregations represented by these denominations provide social services — from English-language lessons to nutrition programs — but since Trump took office, fewer people are making use of them because of the fear of deportation.

“They cannot take the risk to go to those places at this point,” said the Rev. Carlos Malave, president of Latino Christian National Network.

The denominations represented by the lawsuit include Baptist, Brethren, Conservative Jewish, Episcopalian, Evangelical, Mennonite, Quaker, Pentecostal, Presbyterian, Reconstructionist Jewish, Reform Jewish, Unitarian Universalist, United Methodist and Zion Methodist.

“They bring this suit unified on a fundamental belief: Every human being, regardless of birthplace, is a child of God worthy of dignity, care, and love,” the complaint says.

The Philadelphia-area plaintiffs are Friends General Conference, an association of Quaker organizations, and Reconstructing Judaism, an umbrella organizations for 94 Reconstructive congregations.

Most American Jews need to go only a couple generations back to identify immigrant ancestors, Rabbi Deborah Waxman, Reconstructing Judaism’s CEO, told The Inquirer. And protecting immigrants is a core tenant of Judaism that is repeated in the Torah multiple times.

“We understand this to be a religious mandate,” Waxman said.

The Department of Homeland Security did not respond to a request for comment.

Last month, Quaker yearly meetings filed a similar federal lawsuit in Maryland asking a judge to protect houses of worship.