Several Quaker congregations are suing the Trump administration over an order lifting a previous policy that had curtailed Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents from conducting raids in “sensitive locations,” including schools, hospitals and houses of worship.
The Quaker groups filed their suit on Monday in a Maryland federal court alleging that the policy change within the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) directly affects their churches and the houses of worship of other faiths, in violation of their First Amendment religious freedoms.
“The very threat of that [immigration] enforcement deters congregants from attending services, especially members of immigrant communities,” the lawsuit states, noting that attending such services is part of the “guarantee of religious liberty” enshrined in the U.S. Constitution.
In an executive order issued in his first week of being president, Donald Trump rescinded the nearly 14-year policy limiting raids on places of worship and other sensitive locations. Several religious organizations across the country have condemned the new policy, which now allows ICE agents to storm into places of worship to detain undocumented immigrants as part of Trump’s draconian mass deportation plan. The Quakers appear to be the first religious group to have filed a lawsuit seeking to block the policy.
The litigation, which was filed by Democracy Forward on behalf of five Quaker congregations, notes that there are “specific procedures” that are typically followed when policies like these are changed. The Trump administration did not follow that process on this policy, the lawsuit contends.
Furthermore, the lawsuit states that the new policy “does not acknowledge that houses of worship are sacred spaces.” The suit adds:
[The policy change] does not acknowledge that for many, religious exercise is an essential activity (as the previous policy did). And it does not even consider what unconstrained immigration enforcement at houses of worship would mean as a result. Instead, it treats houses of worship as nothing more than places where ‘criminal aliens — including murderers and rapists’ go to ‘hide.’
The lawsuit seeks a complete ban on the new policy, leaving the older standard — which has been enforced since the Obama administration — in place.
“Quaker meetings for worship seek to be a sanctuary and a refuge for all, and this new and invasive practice tangibly erodes that possibility by creating unnecessary anxiety, confusion, and chilling of our members’ and neighbors’ willingness to share with us in the worship which sustains our lives,” said Noah Merrill, secretary of Quaker group the New England Yearly Meeting of Friends, one of the groups participating in the lawsuit. “This undermines our communities and, we believe, violates our religious freedom.”
“President Trump swore an oath to defend the Constitution and yet today religious institutions that have existed since the 1600s in our country are having to go to court to challenge what is a violation of every individual’s constitutional right to worship and associate freely,” said Skye Perryman, president and CEO of Democracy Forward.
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