A federal judge in Maryland has issued a preliminary injunction blocking immigration agents from conducting enforcement operations in houses of worship for Quakers and several other religious groups. The judge, U.S. District Judge Theodore Chang, ruled that the Trump administration's policy could potentially violate the religious freedom of these groups and should be halted while a lawsuit challenging it proceeds.
The lawsuit was filed by a coalition of Quaker meetings from multiple states, along with a network of Baptist churches in Georgia and a Sikh temple in California. They took legal action after the Trump administration eliminated Department of Homeland Security policies that restricted where migrant arrests could take place, allowing field agents to conduct immigration enforcement operations at houses of worship without supervisor approval.
