Judge Rules ICE Agents Can Arrest Suspected Migrants Near Churches
A federal judge on Friday dismissed a lawsuit brought by churches challenging the Trump administration’s new policy permitting immigration officers to make arrests near churches, ruling that the religious groups failed to demonstrate sufficient harm to justify legal action.
U.S. District Judge Dabney Friedrich, a Trump appointee, found that concerns about declining attendance or potential harassment by immigration officers were too speculative to support the case, the Washington Times reported.
The decision effectively upholds—for now—the Department of Homeland Security’s reversal of a Biden-era policy that had sharply restricted immigration enforcement near so-called “sensitive locations” such as churches, schools, hospitals, day cares, community centers, and other public gathering places.
Churches and schools have been central to immigration advocacy efforts, with religious organizations reporting empty pews following the Trump administration’s policy changes.
However, the judge noted that the decline in attendance could just as easily be attributed to Trump’s broader mass deportation agenda as to the specific rollback of the sensitive locations policy.
“At least on the existing record, the plaintiffs have not presented ’substantial evidence’ that the policy rescission — as opposed to the administration’s broader immigration crackdown — has caused the widespread congregant absences from religious services,” Friedrich ruled.
He did not weigh in on the legality or merits of the new Trump policy, instead ruling that the plaintiffs lacked the necessary “standing” to bring the lawsuit.
In contrast, a federal judge in Maryland reached a different conclusion, issuing an injunction that blocks Homeland Security from making immigration arrests near a specific group of houses of worship that had filed suit.
ICE agent Brian Sullivan apprehended Wilson Martell-Lebron as he was leaving the courthouse. However, a Boston Municipal Court judge ruled that Sullivan had violated Martell-Lebron’s rights to due process and a fair trial by taking him into custody during the proceedings, the Associated Press reported.
“It’s a case of violating a defendant’s right to present at trial and confront witnesses against him,” Judge Mark Summerville said from the bench. “It couldn’t be more serious.”
Summerville dismissed the charge against Martell-Lebron for making false statements on his driver’s license application—specifically, claiming he wasn’t Martell-Lebron, the report said. Following this action, the judge filed the contempt charge against Sullivan, which may prompt Suffolk County District Attorney Kevin Hayden to review the case and decide whether any charges should be pursued.
“It’s reprehensible,” Ryan Sullivan, one of Martell-Lebron’s lawyers said. “Law enforcement agents have a job to see justice is done. Prosecutors have a job to see justice is done. There is no greater injustice in my mind than the government arresting someone, without identifying themselves, and preventing them from exercising their constitutionally guaranteed right to a jury trial.”
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