PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) — A coalition of Quaker groups, including one in Philadelphia, filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration seeking to block immigration authorities from raiding houses of worship in search of criminal migrants.
The Quaker groups allege that the policy change harms their congregations by deterring immigrants from worshipping in person, violating their First Amendment rights to freely associate and exercise religion.
“Allowing armed government agents wearing ICE-emblazoned jackets to park outside a religious service and monitor who enters or to interrupt the service and drag a congregant out during the middle of worship is anathema to Quaker religious exercise,” the federal lawsuit filed in Maryland said. “The very threat of that enforcement deters congregants from attending services, especially members of immigrant communities.”
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Philadelphia Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends in Center City is one of the plaintiffs.
The Religious Society of Friends argued their practice of communal worship is uniquely harmed by the policy change, alleging that the possibility of an immigration arrest or search has a “chilling effect” on immigrant worshippers. Quaker worship generally involves multiple congregants sitting together in silence to await a message from God, which can be received and shared by anyone in attendance, according to the lawsuit.
“Quakers believe that every person, no matter their background, can be a conduit for a message from the Divine. Indeed, Quakers believe that those with varied life experiences-including immigrants-can provide unique messages from God. Being able to receive those messages is fundamental to Quaker religious exercise,” the lawsuit said.
Last week, Acting Department of Homeland Security Secretary Benjamine Huffman announced he was revoking a Biden-era policy that prevented Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection from carrying out law enforcement action in sensitive areas such as playgrounds, churches, and schools.
“Criminals will no longer be able to hide in America’s schools and churches to avoid arrest,” Huffman said in a statement. “The Trump Administration will not tie the hands of our brave law enforcement, and instead trusts them to use common sense.”
The lawsuit criticized DHS for upending the policy without giving its agents any more guidance than to follow their “common sense,” arguing that policy threatens the basic rights of Americans to freely worship without fear.
“Whether it’s to sit in expectant waiting, to deliver or receive a weekly homily, to lead or participate in Jama’ah, or to participate in religious observances requiring a minyan, communal worship is fundamental to the religious exercise of many. For Plaintiffs-Quaker congregations-communal worship is not just important, it is the very process of worship itself,” the lawsuit said.
Individual members of the five Quaker groups attested to the harm to their worship experience by submitting affidavits about the impact of the policy.
“It lessens our ability to hear God and what God is trying to tell us,” said Michael Levi, a 20-year member of the Adelphi Friends Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends. “Government enforcement actions that stops people from entering our meeting house-or scares them from doing so-affects us personally, viscerally, emotionally, and theologically.”
The Department of Homeland Security has not yet responded to the lawsuit.
ABC News contributed to this report.
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