February 11, 2025
On February 11, a multifaith coalition and the Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection announced that they had filed a lawsuit challenging ICE’s “sensitive locations policy.” Churches (along with schools and hospitals) had previously been protected from the agency’s enforcement actions, but a Department of Homeland Security memo rescinded that protection on January 20th.
“Our sacred spaces must continue to offer sanctuary to those who face oppression, violence, or alienation, including immigrant communities.”
The Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA) is proud to announce that we are a plaintiff in this lawsuit. We join this multifaith coalition to challenge the ending of ICE’s sensitive locations policy, and oppose any interpretation of law which would allow immigration raids in houses of worship and religious ceremonies.
The suit asserts that subjecting places of worship to ICE enforcement actions without a judicial warrant substantially burdens our religious exercise in violation of the First Amendment and the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA). These enforcement actions at our places of worship interfere with our religious activities and our ability to fulfill our religious mandate to welcome and serve immigrants.
Of the lawsuit, the UUA’s Executive Vice President Carey McDonald said, “As Unitarian Universalists (UUs), fighting for justice and liberation for all people is at the heart of our faith tradition, which recognizes the spark of the divine inherent in every person; our sacred spaces must continue to offer sanctuary to those who face oppression, violence, or alienation, including immigrant communities.
UUs are united in our commitment through a set of shared religious values, which include interdependence, pluralism, justice, equity, generosity, and transformation, all of which revolve around Love at the center. Compelled by those values, we will continue to do what Unitarians and Universalists have done throughout our centuries-long history – use our voices and our actions to side with love and help those who are in the greatest need.”
UU congregations include members who are immigrants, both documented and undocumented. Many of our congregations provide social ministries that serve immigrant communities in church spaces, such as through food and diaper distribution, ESL classes, a migrant-focused early learning program, and other tutoring and skill-building. And a large proportion of our congregations are located near the coasts, U.S.-Mexico or U.S.-Canada borders, or in cities where immigration-enforcement actions have recently occurred.
You can read more about the lawsuit and the UUA’s involvement in it at UU World. Read more about the coalition and the plaintiffs at Georgetown’s Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection (PDF, 7 pages).
For Further Reading
Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection (ICAP) Press Release – More Than Two Dozen Christian and Jewish Denominations and Associations Sue to Protect Religious Freedoms (PDF, 7 pages)
For more information contact [email protected].