Reading the paper over breakfast a few days ago, my 2-year-old son anxiously looking over my shoulder for any pictures of an airplane, I was struck by the article “Judge Blocks Migrant Raids in Some Places of Worship” from The New York Times. “Plaintiffs have provided evidence that the willingness of their congregants to attend worship and participate in ministry services is presently being chilled,” the judge wrote in his order, which temporarily prevents ICE from entering the plaintiffs’ places of worship.
Just the night before, my brother, a missionary in the United States, told us during a family group call about people he is teaching who felt scared to come to church. Another brother, who is active in his church congregation, said that a member had been scared to leave his house to participate in his faith community’s obligations to God.
For religious Americans everywhere, alarm bells are ringing. The Trump administration’s decision to reverse guidance that limited immigration enforcement in “sensitive” areas such as schools, hospitals and churches is a crystalline threat to religious liberty because it chills individuals’ participation in their church communities. Courts have previously clarified that the religious liberty rights enshrined in the First Amendment apply to people living in the U.S. regardless of immigration status, so when a member is scared to come to church because of the potential for an ICE raid, he is experiencing an unconstitutional attack on his religious freedom. And, so, by extension are we; it affects each of us and our overall worship as a faith unit when anyone is missing.
In my own faith tradition, leaders have suggested that we, the faithful, will sometimes need to work to change laws that prevent us from living out our religious lives by invoking the First Amendment’s free exercise clause.
It seems that now is a profoundly important time for all America’s faithful to rise together and challenge the Trump administration’s policy because it is impairing our immigrant brothers’ and sisters’ right to live out their faith. Several religions in the United States have robust legal teams who could do this work well, perhaps together.
I also know from my time as an associate at an international law firm that attorneys are ethically obligated to minimize risk for their corporations. Thus, this kind of litigation may strike legal teams as too risky. In going up against such a vindictive administration, they may worry about the potential consequences for their temple, mosque, synagogue or church in the United States.
Those are valid concerns. However, it may be time that we allow moral considerations to take precedence. I want to know that when I attend my local church — where three non-English language congregations meet each Sunday, which most likely include a significant number of members lacking permanent legal status — that it is an oasis for all members. I want to know that each one of the faithful can come and engage their religious duties and responsibilities without fear. The Old Testament prophet Micah envisioned this freedom when he said, “But they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree; and none shall make them afraid,” which also happens to be a favorite scripture of George Washington.
This Sunday‚ because some religious groups had the courage to litigate, six Quaker meeting houses, a Baptist church in Atlanta and a Sikh temple in Sacramento were just such a place for their congregants. Their buildings provided a refuge from the storm, where immigrants could rest in an oasis of safety to fulfill their religious duties and obligations, protected by the Constitution because their faith leaders stood up to those who would impair that pursuit.
It is time for all American faiths to join them.