Quakers Sue to Block Trump’s Immigration Raids in Churches (1)

The Department of Homeland Security’s decision to conduct immigration raids in houses of worship violates the First Amendment, a group of Quaker congregations said in a new federal lawsuit challenging the practice.

DHS’s policy violates the First Amendment and the Religious Freedom Restoration Act by burdening the rights of congregants to exercise their religion without a compelling reason, according to the complaint filed Monday by the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends and four other Quaker groups.

For over 30 years the government had an official policy of not conducting immigration raids in “protected areas,” which included houses of worship, the groups say in their complaint in the US District Court for the District of Maryland.

But after President Donald Trump took office and signed an executive order bolstering immigration enforcement, DHS authorized its agents to conduct enforcement raids in churches and at religious ceremonies, the complaint says. The only limitating factor on the raids is an agents “common sense,” it says.

The suit is one of a growing number of legal challenges to the Trump administration’s new immigration enforcement initiatives.

Quaker services aren’t lead by a single person, instead the congregation sits in silence until an attendee receives a message from God to share with the others, the complaint says. Communal worship is thus “the very process of worship itself,” and including immigrants in the congregation provides unique messages from God, it says.

The threat of enforcement deters congregants, especially immigrants, from attending services, the complaint says. Losing members is a substantial burden on the congregation’s religious rights, especially when the “congregants would bring to worship different backgrounds and life experiences,” it says.

Allowing the raids at or near places of worship violates the Religious Freedom Restoration Act by burdening Quakers’ right to worship communally, the complaint says. It also notes that the government has said that it can achieve its current mission without limiting individuals’ access to places of worship.

DHS’s policy violates the First Amendment because it will result in fewer members and attendees—the core of Quaker worship, the complaint says. The policy will reshape the congregation by diminishing the number of immigrants who attend worship services, it says. Allowing armed agents near or in places of worship also undermines the Quakers’ central message of pacifism and nonviolence, it says.

The complaint further says that DHS’s policy is arbitrary and capricious in violation of Administrative Procedure Act, and wasn’t adopted pursuant to APA procedures.

The plaintiffs, which also include the New England Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends, Baltimore Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends, Adelphi Friends Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends, and Richmond Friends Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends, seek a declaration that DHS’s new immigration policy is unconstitutional and an injunction against its enforcement.

DHS didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Democracy Forward Foundation represents the plaintiffs.

The case is Philadelphia Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends v. DHS, D. Md., No. 8:25-cv-00243, complaint filed 1/27/25.