The Trump administration’s rollback of immigration enforcement protections at locations of worship has drawn the ire of two Massachusetts-based clergy teams listed as plaintiffs in a lawsuit that claims the motion violated basic non secular rights.
The Massachusetts Council of Church buildings and the Unitarian Universalist Affiliation, headquartered in Boston, are among the many roughly two dozen plaintiffs suing the Division of Homeland Safety over the “rescission of ICE’s sensitive locations policy.”
A day after retaking workplace final month, President Trump threw out a coverage that prevented federal immigration businesses from arresting unlawful immigrants at locations of worship and faculties, opening the doorways to enforcement on the “sensitive locations.”
The plaintiffs within the lawsuit filed Tuesday allege that the rescission of the coverage, which had been in place for over a decade, violates the First Modification and the Spiritual Freedom Restoration Act.
The Massachusetts Council of Church buildings stated in a launch that within the weeks following the rollback, congregations throughout Massachusetts have seen a decline in worship attendance and social service use.
The state’s largest ecumenical Christian community pointed to how a Boston “majority immigrant church” had “350 people in attendance the Sunday before the inauguration, and 150 people on the Sunday after the rescission.”
“Every Christian agrees that Jesus said you must love your neighbor and welcome the stranger. We must be able to do this to practice our faith,” Government Director Rev. Laura Everett stated in an announcement. “The current administration is preventing us from doing so. Our churches must be able to freely worship and serve.”
The plaintiffs argued that the ICE enforcement actions with out a judicial warrant “substantially burden our religious exercise” and “interfere with our religious activities and our ability to fulfill our religious mandate to welcome and serve immigrants.”
“As Unitarian Universalists (UUs), fighting for justice and liberation for all people is at the heart of our faith tradition, which recognizes the spark of the divine inherent in every person,” UUA Government Vice President Carey McDonald stated in an announcement. “Our sacred spaces must continue to offer sanctuary to those who face oppression, violence, or alienation, including immigrant communities.”
The brand new lawsuit echoes and expands on among the arguments made in the same lawsuit filed Jan. 27 by 5 Quaker congregations and later joined by the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship and a Sikh temple. It’s presently pending in U.S. District Courtroom in Maryland.
The Division of Justice contended in a memo filed final Friday that the Quakers’ request to dam the brand new enforcement coverage relies on hypothesis of hypothetical future hurt.
The memo stated that immigration enforcement affecting homes of worship had been permitted for many years, and the brand new coverage introduced in January merely stated that discipline brokers may now conduct such operations with out pre-approval from a supervisor.
Tricia McLaughlin, DHS assistant safety for public affairs, stated the coverage appears to be like to erode the hurt created below the Biden administration at delicate areas.
“We are protecting our schools, places of worship, and Americans who attend,” she stated in an e-mail, “by preventing criminal aliens and gang members from exploiting these locations and (taking) safe haven there because these criminals knew that under the previous Administration that law enforcement couldn’t go inside.”
The Related Press contributed to this report
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