Federal judge blocks immigration arrests at some religious sites

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CNA Staff, Feb 24, 2025 / 16:35 pm (CNA).

A federal judge has ruled that the U.S. government will not be permitted to conduct unrestricted arrests of suspected unauthorized immigrants at some religious sites while a lawsuit over the policy plays out in federal court. 

In an injunction on Monday, U.S. District Judge Theodore Chuang blocked the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) along with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) from carrying out “potential or actual immigration actions” at houses of worship belonging to several groups, including the Quakers and a Sikh temple in Sacramento. 

DHS under President Donald Trump last month rescinded Biden-era guidelines that previously required ICE agents to seek their superior’s approval before arresting people at or near “sensitive locations” such as churches, hospitals, or schools.

The religious groups filed suit against the federal government shortly after, arguing in part that the policy’s enforcement would infringe on constitutional religious rights.

The policy creates “the threat of federal officers surveilling and arresting meeting attendees, rendering [the religious groups] unable to encourage anyone who feels called to join to do so,” the suit said. 

In his order on Monday, Chuang directed the federal government to re-implement the Biden administration’s guidelines regarding arrests at “sensitive locations.”

Chuang’s ruling only bars the government from carrying out broad “immigration enforcement.” The judge in his directive said the government can still perform arrests at places of worship “when authorized by an administrative or judicial warrant.”

The government will be blocked from immigration enforcement at the plaintiff institutions while the lawsuit plays out in federal courts. 

In an opinion filed with the order, Chuang said he “does not question that law enforcement, when necessary, must have the ability to conduct operations in or near places of worship.”

But the broad nature of the government’s policy, he said, warrants the injunction “until the exact contours of what is necessary to avoid unlawful infringement on religious exercise are determined later in this case.”

The ruling comes nearly two weeks after the filing of a similar lawsuit in federal court by a coalition of more than two dozen religious groups.

Those groups, which included the Mennonite Church, the Episcopal Church, the Friends General Conference, and several Jewish groups including the New York-based Rabbinical Assembly, argued that the enforcement of immigration arrests in churches was “substantially burdening the religious exercise” of the plaintiffs’ congregations and members.