Washington — A federal judge in Maryland blocked the Trump administration on Monday from carrying out immigration enforcement actions at certain places of worship for Quakers, Cooperative Baptists and Sikhs, who filed a lawsuit challenging President Trump’s unwinding of a Biden-era memo that barred immigration arrests at certain protected locations.
U.S. District Judge Theodore Chuang granted a request for a narrow preliminary injunction sought by the religious groups as they pursue their challenge to Mr. Trump’s directive allowing federal immigration authorities to conduct enforcement actions at places of worship. Chuang’s order does not block the administration’s policy nationwide, and only applies to houses of worship owned or used by the challengers — the Quakers, Cooperative Baptists and Sikhs.
The groups had argued that the new policy allowing immigration arrests at places that were previously considered protected violates their First Amendment rights and burdens the free exercise of religion under federal law.
Chuang found that the threat of enforcement action at houses of worship attended by the three religious communities has caused reductions in attendance by not only immigrants who are in the country illegally, but also by those with legal status who fear they may be mistaken for unauthorized immigrants.
“Where plaintiffs’ communal religious exercise will be significantly and adversely affected by reductions in attendance resulting from immigration enforcement actions pursuant to the 2025 policy, armed law enforcement officers operating in or at places of worship pursuant to the 2025 policy will adversely affect the ability of Quakers and Sikhs to follow their religious beliefs or worship freely,” Chuang wrote in a 59-page opinion.
The judge ordered the Trump administration to reinstate a 2021 memorandum from then-Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas that barred the department and its components from taking enforcement action in certain places that “require special protection,” including schools, medical facilities or places of worship. That memo said immigration enforcement action should not be undertaken at houses of worship “to the fullest extent possible.”
Chuang’s order does not prevent the Trump administration from conducting arrests in or near places of worship when authorized by a warrant.
Mr. Trump’s directive revoking the Biden administration’s memo was issued on his first day in office as part of a series of executive actions aimed at cracking down on immigration. The Trump administration replaced it with a directive stating that “it is not necessary” to “create bright line rules regarding where our immigration laws are permitted to be enforced.”
A press release from the Department of Homeland Security further stated that “criminals will no longer be able to hide in America’s schools and churches to avoid arrest. The Trump administration will not tie the hands of our brave law enforcement, and instead trusts them to use common sense.”
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