Twenty-seven churches and organizations — some with ties to Texas’ Jewish and Christian faith communities — are suing the Trump administration over the elimination of ICE’s sensitive locations policy.
The lawsuit was filed on Tuesday, Feb. 11, in U.S. District Court in Washington D.C. against the Department of Homeland Security for President Donald Trump’s abrupt reversal of the policy on Jan. 20, which the plaintiffs argue has caused fear within their communities and violates their rights under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.
The original protections against Border Patrol targeting places such as churches and schools has its roots in one of El Paso’s oldest high schools — Bowie High School. In the 1990s, Border Patrol agents in El Paso targeted teachers and students at the school. A federal court settlement required agents to have probable cause for stopping suspected immigrants.
In the latest legal actions, churches and organizations — include the Quakers, Mennonites, Christian and Jewish traditions — also point out the text of the Torah and the Bible that call on the faithful to be welcoming to strangers or immigrants, being the “central precept of their faith practices.”
“This felt like a direct attack on what it means to be a person of faith, what it means to be a faith community,” Rabbi Rick Jacobs, the president of the New York-based Union for Reformed Judaism, said. “We were encouraged that there were a few dozen of other denominations and associations that also have the same feeling of being morally summoned to speak up and join this lawsuit.”
U.S. District Judge Dabney Friedrich of the District of Columbia will oversee the case. There is currently no date set for the first hearing.
The sensitive locations policy protected spaces — houses of worship schools, hospitals and other places that provide social services — from immigration enforcement operations. It’s been upheld in every administration for the past 30 years.
“Although the legal action applies primarily to our churches, the truth is that we are concerned for the population in general,” Rev. Carlos Malavé, the founder of the Amarillo, Texas-based Latino Christian National Network, said. “Our churches are right there on the front line helping our community, sustaining our community, not only spiritually but in physical ways. Not upholding this policy is creating havoc in our community.”
I would say that’s one of the points of the policy. Using religious freedom and the RFRA is a good strategy, especially given the nature of the courts at this point, but it’s no guarantee. SCOTUS is very capable of fitting its reasoning to suit its preferred outcome. We’ll just have to see how this one goes.