More than two dozen religious groups, including the North Carolina Council of Churches, filed a lawsuit Tuesday against the Department of Homeland Security challenging the Trump administration’s reversal of a policy that barred Immigration and Customs Enforcement from conducting raids at houses of worship.
The suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Washington D.C., is seeking injunctions to prevent DHS from conducting enforcement actions in places of worship without exigent circumstances or a judicial warrant.
The faith groups say the new policy has driven declines in worship attendance and social service participation due to fears of ICE raids. By allowing ICE raids at religious sites, the administration’s move threatens the sanctity of worship and the ability of faith communities to serve immigrants and refugees, according to the plaintiffs.
The shift also violates the First Amendment and the Religious Freedom Restoration Act by threatening the ability of faith communities to serve immigrants and refugees, according to the lawsuit.
“Whatever interest DHS has in enforcing immigration law, it cannot meet its burden here of demonstrating that its interference with plaintiffs’ religious practices is the least restrictive means of serving that interest,” said Kelsi Corkran, lead counsel for plaintiffs during a Zoom meeting with reporters on Wednesday.
“One of the most frequent directives found in the Bible is caring for those who come to us from another place,” said the Rev. Jennifer Copeland, executive director of the North Carolina Council of Churches, in a statement. “Not to be allowed to do so is to be denied a basic tenet of our faith.”
The plaintiffs include 12 national denominational bodies, 4 regional denominational bodies, and 11 denominational and interdenominational associations rooted in Jewish and Christian faiths.
In a separate but similar case, the U.S. District Court of Maryland will hear arguments Wednesday morning in a suit seeking a temporary restraining order to block the policy, arguing it violates the First Amendment and unlawfully burdens religious freedom.
