A progressive-leaning coalition of religious leaders in Washington, D.C., is demanding that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents stop using church parking lots when trying to make arrests, claiming it is “implicating” faith communities in what they described as a “federal takeover.”
Nineteen leaders signed the letter organized by the Fellowship of Reconciliation-USA-DMV, the local chapter of an interfaith advocacy group, WUSA reported Saturday.
“We recognize that as these law enforcement entities use the properties of houses of worship, they are implicating those worshipping communities in the erosion of [D.C.] Home Rule,” the letter stated, “[m]aking it look like those communities of faith agree with a federal takeover, and in accord with the racial profiling and disappearance of our neighbors, family members and friends.”
Rev. Patricia Fears, the lead pastor of Fellowship Baptist Church and one of the letter’s organizers, said that around five church leaders had told her that ICE agents had parked in their lots before conducting arrests.
ICE enforcement has made it more difficult for several D.C. churches to hold charity events and worship services, Fears said, adding that several Haitian children stopped attending her Baptist church after President Donald Trump’s administration deployed the National Guard to the nation’s capital and federalized the Metropolitan Police Department to combat crime.
Fears claimed that her church has also had to make changes to distribute food differently, as immigrant members of the community are fearful of ICE arresting them.
“We’ve had to set up systems where we give out food other ways,” she stated. “I don’t want to expose what we’re doing.”
Neither ICE nor Rev. Patricia Fears immediately responded to The Christian Post’s request for comment.
Others who signed the letter include pastors from local churches affiliated with denominations that typically hold progressive views on social and theological issues, such as the United Church of Christ, the African Methodist Episcopal Church, the Disciples of Christ, and the Unitarian Universalist Association. Leaders from a handful of Baptist and independent churches also signed the letter.
In an executive order published earlier this month, Trump argued that the District of Columbia Self-Government and Governmental Re-Organization Act gave him the authority to take control of its police force and send in the National Guard.
The president cited crime statistics for Washington, D.C., as well as its status as a sanctuary city, which he claimed has shielded illegal immigrants from deportation and contributed to the increasing crime rate.
“The murder rate in Washington today is higher than that of Bogota, Colombia, Mexico City, some of the places that you hear about as being the worst places on Earth,” Trump asserted. “The number of car thefts has doubled over the past five years and the number of carjackings has more than tripled. Murders in 2023 reached the highest rate, probably ever.”
One critic of the decision, Del. Elanor Holmes Norton, D-D.C., accused Trump and his administration of committing a “historic assault on D.C. home rule.” She called it “more evidence of the urgent need” to pass a D.C. statehood bill.
“Crime in D.C. reached a 30-year low in 2024 and is down 26% this year compared to the same time period last year,” Holmes Norton said in an Aug. 11 statement. “The administration is justifying the decision by misleadingly citing years-old statistics.”
Although city leaders are citing declining crime statistics, the D.C. Police Union accused city leaders in May of “deliberately falsifying crime data, creating a false narrative of reduced crime while communities suffer” to “evade public scrutiny.”
Fears and the 18 other religious leaders who signed the letter are not the only faith communities that have challenged the Trump administration over federal agents conducting immigration enforcement operations on their property.
Last month, multiple Christian groups filed a lawsuit in federal court in Massachusetts, arguing that many congregations “have seen both attendance and financial giving plummet” due to the Trump administration allowing federal agents to use their properties.
The plaintiffs listed in the suit include multiple regional bodies of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, the American Baptist Churches USA, the Alliance of Baptists and multiple regional bodies of the Religious Society of Friends and the Metropolitan Community Churches. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security and DHS Secretary Kristi Noem are named as defendants.
In April, a group of churches, along with two other nonprofits, also filed a complaint in U.S. District Court in Oregon, challenging the legality of the DHS’s rescission of an Obama-era policy that banned immigration law enforcement operations from “sensitive” areas, including churches and schools.
The DHS, after rescinding the policy in January, said in a statement at the time that the policy change would prevent criminals from avoiding arrest by hiding in schools and churches.
“The Trump Administration will not tie the hands of our brave law enforcement, and instead trusts them to use common sense,” the DHS declared.
“The Biden-Harris Administration abused the humanitarian parole program to indiscriminately allow 1.5 million migrants to enter our country. This was all stopped on day one of the Trump Administration. This action will return the humanitarian parole program to its original purpose of looking at migrants on a case-by-case basis.”
Samantha Kamman is a reporter for The Christian Post. She can be reached at: samantha.kamman@christianpost.com. Follow her on Twitter: @Samantha_Kamman
