A federal judge in Maryland on Monday halted the Trump administration’s attempts to raid houses of worship to arrest undocumented immigrants as part of its aggressive mass deportation campaign.
Judge Theodore Chuang, who was appointed during the Obama administration, issued an order temporarily preventing Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents from carrying out President Donald Trump’s raids in certain religious sanctuaries while the case is still pending, CBS News reported.
The order does not stop ICE agents from charging into churches and temples nationwide. It currently only applies to the plaintiffs in the case: the Quakers, Cooperative Baptists, and Sikhs.
The judge ordered all members of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), including ICE, to act in accordance with the Biden-era memorandum, which declared that immigration enforcement at places of worship can only occur in limited circumstances, with prior approval from headquarters, and must be avoided “to the fullest extent possible.”
The 2021 memo also restricted arrests at protected areas such as medical or mental healthcare facilities and schools, as well as places where parades, demonstrations, funerals, religious ceremonies and weddings occur. It also prevented ICE from detaining individuals in places where emergency responders or children gather.
The memo read, “If we take an action at an emergency shelter, it is possible that noncitizens, including children, will be hesitant to visit the shelter and receive needed food and water, urgent medical attention, or other humanitarian care.”
It added: “We can accomplish our enforcement mission without denying or limiting individuals' access to needed medical care, children access to their schools, the displaced access to food or shelter, people of fait access to their places of worship, and more. Adherence to this principle is one bedrock of our stature as public servants.”
There were emergency exceptions, including for national security threats and imminent risk to others.
But the day that Trump took office, he rescinded the policy. A Jan. 21 statement from a DHS spokesperson noted that officers “frequently apply enforcement discretion to balance a variety of interests.” But instead of following official guidelines, law enforcement officers are instead urged to use “a healthy dose of common sense.”
The statement said that the Biden administration abused the program and that “this was all stopped on day one of the Trump administration.”
When Chuang issued the injunction, he said that the risk of ICE raids have sparked widespread fear in the religious communities, deterring both undocumented immigrants and legal citizens who worry they’ll be wrongly targeted in the raids from visiting houses of worship.
In a 59-page opinion, Chuang highlights concerns from the Quakers, who have said the idea of ICE officers brandishing weapons at their meeting “is distressing enough to make it very difficult to engage in waiting worship and will discourage attendance.’”
Chuang argued that the Trump administration’s policy lacks “meaningful limitations or safeguards” to prevent “warrantless operations” that may hinder a community’s First Amendment rights.
Other religious groups have launched similar challenges against the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement policy. More than two dozen Christian and Jewish groups in Washington D.C. filed a separate lawsuit on Feb. 11 that united members from across Baptist, Episcopalian, Mennonite and countless other sects. The lawsuit claimed that “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 Daily Beast has reached out to the Trump administration for comment.
