United Methodists join suit against Trump policy

Key Points:

• United Methodists have joined with other Christian denominations and Jewish bodies in a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
• The religious groups are seeking a reversal of the Trump administration policy that allows ICE agents to carry out raids in houses of worship.
• United Methodists and other religious leaders emphasize that this policy change intrudes on their biblical mandate to care for migrants.

United Methodists have joined with more than two dozen Christian and Jewish bodies in filing a federal lawsuit against the Trump administration policy that allows immigration enforcement within houses of worship.

Specifically, the case seeks to reverse the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s policy permitting ICE agents to carry out immigration raids in “sensitive locations,” such as schools, hospitals, synagogues and churches. Instead, the suit wants to prevent Immigration and Customs Enforcement from intruding on ministry without judicial warrant or special circumstances.

The lawsuit, filed Feb. 11 in federal court in Washington, D.C., argues that the new policy interferes with core Christian and Jewish beliefs. The policy also violates both the Religious Freedom Restoration Act and the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, the suit contends.

The United Methodist Commission on Religion and Race as well as the denomination’s New York, North Georgia and Western North Carolina conferences are among the groups bringing the legal action.

The Rev. Giovanni Arroyo, Religion and Race’s top executive, said United Methodists have an obligation to resist injustice.

“It’s a biblical mandate for us to welcome the foreigner, to care for them,” he said.

He pointed to directives to welcome the stranger throughout the Old and New Testament, including Jesus’ words in the Gospels. The United Methodist Social Principles also urge care for immigrants and refugees.

“It’s a biblical understanding that we are placed with this responsibility to care, protect and love our neighbor.”

But at this time, he said, local church ministries are at risk for the work they are doing with migrants.

“It’s not only through providing worship experiences; it’s also about providing pastor care, about English as a Second Language classes; it’s about food pantries,” Arroyo said.

“It’s about all these other elements that are connected to immigrant siblings that now are in jeopardy because of the sensitive-location removal.”

He said more United Methodist ministries wanted to join the case, but the constraints of the lawsuit limited the number of plaintiffs. Each United Methodist body is a separate legal entity under federal law.

Plaintiffs also include the Christian denominations of the Mennonite Church USA, the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), the Episcopal Church, the Friends General Conference (Quakers) and the Presbyterian Church (USA). The Unitarian Universalist Association is another plaintiff. 

Also joining the suit are three Jewish branches — Union for Reform Judaism (the largest Jewish movement in the U.S.), Reconstructing Judaism and the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism.

“They bring this suit unified on a fundamental belief: Every human being, regardless of birthplace, is a child of God worthy of dignity, care, and love,” the suit states. “Welcoming the stranger, or immigrant, is thus a central precept of their faith practices.”

In filing the suit, the groups are working with Georgetown Law’s Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection. The institute also is involved in a case that has led to a judge putting an indefinite hold on President Trump’s plans to eliminate birthright citizenship via executive order.

“The rescission of the sensitive-locations policy is already substantially burdening their religious exercise,” Kelsi Corkran, the religious groups' lead counsel and the institute’s Supreme Court director, said in a press conference.

“Congregations are experiencing decreases in worship attendance and social service participation due to fears of ICE, and they’re put in this untenable position.”

She said houses of worship now must choose whether to continue to welcome undocumented people into their places of worship or expose people to the risk of arrest and deportation.

The new Homeland Security policy, initiated on President Trump’s first day in office, disavows any “bright line rules regarding where our immigration laws are permitted to be enforced.” Instead, Homeland Security leaves it up to ICE agents’ discretion whether they enter houses of worship and other traditionally protected areas.

The policy rescinds 30-year-old guidelines for immigration enforcement rooted in a concept of “sanctuary” that goes back to the medieval church. The legal protection offered by sanctuary even plays a role in the novel “The Hunchback of Notre-Dame.”

“The Church has long been a sanctuary for all and Church property is a sacred space where the faithful gather to worship, serve and find community in Christ without fear,” said Western North Carolina Bishop Kenneth H. Carter Jr., in a statement.

The Western North Carolina Conference joins the lawsuit, he added, “to affirm that our churches must remain the dwelling places of God, who has set them apart for peace and sanctuary, where the rights of all who enter are upheld, including the rights of the Church to fulfill its mission.”

Churches already have seen the new policy in action.

In the Trump administration’s first week, ICE agents arrested more than 4,500 people, including nearly 1,000 people in a Sunday “immigration enforcement blitz.”

One arrest took place at a Pentecostal church in Georgia during worship service. Christianity Today reported that the man and his family, who came to the U.S. fleeing violence in Honduras, had previously turned themselves into authorities to seek asylum. Authorities outfitted him with a GPS-tracking bracelet and allowed him to pursue his case.

Arch Street United Methodist Church in Philadelphia already has dealt with federal authorities coming to its door three times this year.

The multiethnic, 330-member church, in partnership with the city of Philadelphia, provides a drop-in shelter for homeless people. Agents, saying they were with Homeland Security, have showed up seeking information on the people using the shelter.

The Rev. Robin Hynicka, the church’s lead pastor, told United Methodist News that church leaders explained to the agents that the church’s contract with the city requires that the privacy of the church’s guests be maintained.

“I can’t say they were looking for an undocumented person or whether they were looking for someone they suspected of a crime. I have no idea. They had no warrant,” Hynicka said.

He said the church requires valid search or arrest warrants for law enforcement to enter the building. But even in such an event, Hynicka said, the church will consult with legal counsel first to determine if such warrants are valid.  

After Trump’s first election in 2016, Arch Street United Methodist Church offered sanctuary to a husband and father, who was in the process of qualifying for legal status that he now has. Today, he owns a tree-trimming business. 

The congregation has publicly declared again its willingness to be a sanctuary church.

Hynicka stressed that the executive orders Trump signed have created a climate of fear far beyond church walls.

“People are afraid to come out of their houses to go shop or to take their kids to school,” he said. “It creates a public safety hazard. They’re afraid to report crimes. And life still goes on, and life isn’t always beautiful for folks who are vulnerable.”

The new policy affects not only congregations that declare themselves places of sanctuary but all congregations in the U.S., stressed the Rev. Carlos Malave who leads the Latino Christian National Network, another plaintiff in the suit. He also noted that the policy affects all ethnic groups.

Bishop Thomas Bickerton leads the New York Conference that is home to many immigrant congregations both within New York City and in surrounding communities, and he said many parishioners are scared. Just as the Statue of Liberty still lifts her torch over New York Harbor, Bickerton encourages United Methodists to serve as a beacon of hope in a frightening time. 

"I just would encourage all United Methodists to really look deeply at who we are as United Methodist people, how our theology informs our actions, and that this is a time when the integration of theology and action really needs to come to the forefront," Bickerton said. "The time is now for us to take an aggressive posture of what it means to love God deeply and love our neighbor thoroughly and offer places of welcome, refuge and safety for anyone who has a longing or a need for wholeness in their lives. This is a time for United Methodist people to act." 

The United Methodist Church’s ministry, purpose and witness depend on the ability to worship freely and peacefully, said the Rev. Rodrigo Cruz, assistant to the bishop in the North Georgia Conference.

“We are grateful for the opportunity to join so many Christian and Jewish denominations in making this reasonable and sound request in order to achieve our mission,” Cruz said in a statement. “Finally, we are thankful for a country built with checks and balances, that allows us the opportunity to pursue a necessary appeal that speaks to the core of our existence.”

Hahn is assistant news editor for UM News. Contact her at (615) 742-5470 or [email protected]. To read more United Methodist news, subscribe to the free UM News Digest.