{"id":3666,"date":"2025-02-24T16:56:22","date_gmt":"2025-02-24T20:56:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/?p=3666"},"modified":"2025-02-24T16:56:23","modified_gmt":"2025-02-24T20:56:23","slug":"judge-blocks-trump-immigration-policy-allowing-arrests-in-churches-for-some-religious-groups","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/?p=3666","title":{"rendered":"Judge blocks Trump immigration policy allowing arrests in churches for some religious groups"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

GREENBELT, Md. (AP) \u2014 A federal judge on Monday blocked immigration agents from conducting enforcement operations in houses of worship for Quakers<\/a> and a handful of other religious groups.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

U.S. District Judge Theodore Chang found that the Trump administration policy could violate their religious freedom and should be blocked while a lawsuit challenging it plays out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The preliminary injunction from the Maryland-based judge only applies to the plaintiffs, which also include a Georgia-based network of Baptist churches and a Sikh<\/a> temple in California.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They sued after the Trump administration<\/a> threw out Department of Homeland Security policies limiting where migrant arrests could happen as President Donald Trump<\/a> seeks to make good on campaign promises to carry out mass deportations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The policy change said field agents using \u201ccommon sense\u201d and \u201cdiscretion\u201d can conduct immigration enforcement operations at houses of worship without a supervisor\u2019s approval.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Plaintiffs\u2019 attorneys argue that the new DHS directive departs from the government\u2019s 30-year-old policy against staging immigration enforcement operations in \u201cprotected areas,\u201d or \u201csensitive locations.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Five Quaker congregations from Maryland, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and Virginia sued DHS and its secretary, Kristi Noem<\/a>, on Jan. 27, less than a week after the new policy was announced.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many immigrants are afraid to attend religious services while the government enforces the new rule, lawyers for the congregations said in a court filing<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a fear that people are experiencing across the county,\u201d plaintiffs\u2019 attorney Bradley Girard told the judge during a February hearing. \u201cPeople are not showing up, and the plaintiffs are suffering as a result.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Government lawyers claim the plaintiffs<\/a> are asking the court to interfere with law-enforcement activities based on mere speculation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPlaintiffs have provided no evidence indicating that any of their religious organizations have been targeted,\u201d Justice Department attorney Kristina Wolfe told the judge, who was appointed by President Barack Obama.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

More than two dozen Christian and Jewish groups representing millions of Americans have also filed a similar but separate lawsuit<\/a> in Washington, D.C.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Plaintiffs in the Maryland case are represented by the Democracy Forward Foundation, whose lawyers asked the judge to block DHS enforcement of the policy on a nationwide basis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDHS\u2019s new policy gives it the authority to enter any house of worship across the country, no matter its religious beliefs,\u201d the attorneys wrote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Government lawyers say immigration enforcement activities have been allowed in sensitive places, including houses of worship, for decades. The only change in the policy is that a supervisor\u2019s approval is no longer mandatory, they added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

GREENBELT, Md. (AP) \u2014 A federal judge on Monday blocked […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3667,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3666","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3666","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3666"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3666\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3668,"href":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3666\/revisions\/3668"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3667"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3666"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3666"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3666"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}