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A federal judge has blocked the Trump administration from indiscriminately conducting immigration raids and making arrests inside some houses of worship on Monday in response to a lawsuit filed by Quakers and other religious groups.
Maryland District Court Judge Theodore Chuang’s narrow preliminary injunction will only apply to six Quaker meeting houses, a Sikh temple in Sacramento, Calif., and houses of worship within the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship congregation, which consists of 1,400 churches and serves an estimated 750,000 Baptists.
The targeted injunction stands in contrast to some of the more sweeping nationwide restraining orders judges have issued against the Trump administration.
Chuang, an appointee of former President Barack Obama, took a dim view of the Trump administration’s rescinding of more lax Biden-era guidelines for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) enforcement actions in or near so-called “sensitive” areas, such as churches.
He said the policy shift is causing congregations with large immigrant populations to suffer from lower attendance, which the judge determined to be a “concrete injury.”
“It is reasonable to expect that such enforcement actions will occur at Plaintiffs’ place of worship where [the Department of Homeland Security] specifically stated in its press release announcing the 2025 policy that ‘criminals will no longer be able to hide in America’s schools and churches to avoid arrest,’” the judge wrote in his 59-page order.
“In issuing this injunction, the Court does not question that law enforcement, when necessary, must have the ability to conduct operations in or near places of worship,” Chuang added. “The court finds only that at this early stage of the case, on the sensitive and fraught issue of when and under what circumstances law enforcement may intrude into places of worship to conduct warrantless operations, the 2025 policy’s lack of any meaningful limitations or safeguards … does not satisfy these constitutional and statutory requirements.”
Chuang further argued that the Trump administration’s policy likely violated the groups’ First Amendment rights as well as other federal laws restricting government activities that encroach on religious activities.
The ruling came in response to a suit filed on behalf of the religious groups by left-wing nonprofit Democracy Forward.
“For decades, the government has recognized that everyone — no matter their immigration status — should be able to attend houses of worship without fear of a warrantless government raid. Religious institutions should not have to go to court to fight for the right to worship and associate freely that is enshrined in our Constitution,” Skye Perryman, the president and CEO of Democracy Forward, said in a statement. “Our plaintiffs represent a unique and diverse coalition of religious groups that have been at the forefront in protecting values of religious liberty for centuries.”
“We are grateful to the court for acting to limit this unlawful and harmful policy.”
DHS did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment.
