A coalition of Christian groups and others filed a new lawsuit challenging the Trump administration’s policy of allowing federal agents to conduct immigration enforcement operations on the properties of churches.
The latest legal challenge was filed Monday in federal court in Massachusetts and names the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and DHS Secretary Kristi Noem as defendants.
The lawsuit argues that, because of the Trump administration greenlighting federal agents to use church properties during enforcement operations in a bid to deport immigrants who entered the country illegally, many congregations “have seen both attendance and financial giving plummet.”
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“Congregations have gone underground to protect their parishioners, eschewing in-person meetings central to their faith. Baptisms that previously would have been occasions for communal worship and celebration are now being held in private,” claimed the complaint.
“Churches have quietly stopped advertising immigrant-focused ministries and have canceled programming that served immigrant populations who are now too fearful to attend.”
Plaintiffs include multiple regional bodies of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, the American Baptist Churches USA, the Alliance of Baptists, multiple regional bodies of the Religious Society of Friends and the Metropolitan Community Churches.
The Christian organizations are represented by the progressive legal group Democracy Forward, the Washington Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs and Gilbert LLP.
Skye Perryman, president and CEO of Democracy Forward, said in a statement Monday that her organization is “honored to be alongside these religious leaders in court. We will not give up until this unlawful and dangerous policy is struck down.”
“Raids in churches and sacred spaces violate decades of norms in both Democratic and Republican administrations, core constitutional protections, and basic human decency,” Perryman stated.
“Faith communities should not have to choose between their spiritual commitments and the safety of their congregants.”
In January, DHS announced the rescinding of a policy enacted in 2011 during the Obama administration banning immigration law enforcement operations from “sensitive” areas, including churches and schools.
“Criminals will no longer be able to hide in America’s schools and churches to avoid arrest,” stated DHS at the time. “The Trump Administration will not tie the hands of our brave law enforcement, and instead trusts them to use common sense.”
“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.”
The policy reversal sparked criticism from some religious leaders and multiple lawsuits accusing the administration of violating the First Amendment rights of churches.
In April, a group of churches, along with two other nonprofits, filed a complaint in U.S. District Court in Oregon, challenging the legality of the policy.
Later that month, U.S. District Judge Dabney Friedrich of the District of Columbia, a Trump appointee, ruled against a similar lawsuit filed by a coalition of Christian and Jewish groups.
In her 17-page ruling, Friedrich wrote that the evidence presented failed to demonstrate “that places of worship are being singled out as special targets” by federal agents.
“Since the policy rescission took effect over 10 weeks ago, only one enforcement action has taken place at the hundreds of plaintiffs’ member congregations,” Friedrich wrote at the time.
“The plaintiffs can point to only three instances since January 20, 2025, where any immigration enforcement action has taken place in or near any place of worship anywhere in the country, even under the current administration’s more vigorous immigration priorities and increased.”
In recent months, some church leaders have voiced objection to federal agents chasing migrants who are not church members onto their properties and arresting them.
In early July, Disciples of Christ Pastor Tanya Lopez, senior minister at Downey Memorial Church in Downey, California, wrote a USA Today op-ed complaining about a June incident in which ICE agents wearing masks came onto the church property to arrest a man who happened to walk on church grounds, claiming they tried to intimidate church staff. The incident drew criticism from Disciples of Christ President the Rev. Terri Hord Owens and Pacific Southwest Region President the Rev. Richie Sanchez, who issued a joint statement.
There were also reports that ICE officers took people into custody at another Downey church, Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church.
The Catholic dioceses of San Bernardino and Nashville each recently issued decrees exempting individuals who fear being detained by ICE agents from the obligation to attend mass. The Diocese of Nashville reported a 50% decline in mass attendance on the Sunday after ICE agents arrested nearly 200 people in an early May operation.
The bishops of Nashville, Memphis and Knoxville issued a statement in early June expressing their support for law enforcement’s efforts to deport criminals, drug dealers and human traffickers but questioned the government’s figures related to detention of immigrants who don’t have criminal records. The bishops stressed that “as many as 100 of those detained [during the early May raids], while undocumented, apparently had no previous criminal issues.”
“That brings into question whether the enforcement activity was principally targeted at those who should have no place in our communities because of their own illegal activity,” the bishops wrote in the statement released by the Tennessee Catholic Conference.
“The fact that so many people without documentation could quietly live under the radar, often for decades, clearly points to the need for broad reform of the immigration system.”
Also in June, Bishop of San Bernardino, California, Alberto Rojas criticized federal agents for detaining several people at a parish property after chasing them onto the parking lot.
“While we surely respect and appreciate the right of law enforcement to keep our communities safe from violent criminals, we are now seeing agents detain people as they leave their homes, in their places of work and other randomly chosen public settings,” Rojas stated. “We have experienced at least one case of [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] agents entering a parish property and seizing several people.”
