Fourth Circuit Blocks ICE From Arresting Criminal Illegal Aliens in Churches

A federal appeals court upheld a preliminary injunction limiting Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) from arresting criminal illegal aliens at houses of worship.

The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled on August 18 that the immigration enforcement raids at religious institutions affiliated with Quaker, Sikh and Cooperative Baptist Fellowship organizations likely violate the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA), rejecting the Trump administration’s effort to overturn the injunction imposed by Maryland U.S. District Judge Theodore Chuang, an Obama appointee known for his activist rulings.

Senior Circuit Judge Barbara Milano Keenan wrote the unanimous opinion, joined by Circuit Judge Pamela Harris and Circuit Judge G. Steven Agee. Keenan and Harris are Obama appointees, while Agee was appointed by President George W. Bush. Agee also wrote a separate concurrence emphasizing the narrow scope of the injunction.

The dispute began after the Trump administration rescinded a 2021 Biden-era policy on Jan. 20, 2025, that forbade immigration authorities from taking enforcement actions in designated “protected areas,” including houses of worship, and required them to obtain advance approval for most such operations.

The 2025 revisions instructed immigration officers to exercise discretion and use “a healthy dose of common sense” when deciding where to conduct enforcement actions. The administration said it would no longer tie the hands of ICE and Border Patrol agents in enforcing the law.

The Department of Homeland Security defended the change as necessary to give immigration officers greater freedom to arrest criminal illegal aliens. In announcing the policy, DHS said criminals would “no longer be able to hide in America’s schools and churches to avoid arrest.” 

DHS has also maintained that Immigration and Customs Enforcement does not target houses of worship, while acknowledging that officers could make an arrest at such a location when necessary to protect public safety.

Six Quaker meetings, the Sikh Temple Sacramento, and the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship challenged the policy revision in federal court. They argued that the prospect of immigration enforcement at their facilities had hurt attendance, disrupted religious ministries, and burdened their ability to welcome migrant congregants.

Keenan concluded that the evidence demonstrated a substantial burden on the plaintiffs’ religious exercise under RFRA and rejected the Trump administration’s argument that the policy served a compelling governmental interest, finding that the government had failed to properly raise and substantiate that argument in U.S. District Court.

The ruling does not create a nationwide prohibition on immigration enforcement at churches, temples, meetinghouses or other religious facilities, as the injunction only applies to the eight houses of worship affiliated with the plaintiffs in the case and does not categorically prohibit arrests at those locations when officers have an administrative or judicial warrant.

The decision also does not extend the restrictions to other sensitive locations identified under the Biden era policy, such as hospitals and shelters, with Agee stressing the limited scope of the court’s ruling in his concurrence.

The order preserves certain exceptions under the 2021 framework, including circumstances involving national-security threats, imminent risks of death or physical harm, hot pursuit of a public-safety threat, and other exigent circumstances.

The Trump administration can seek further judicial review as the litigation continues, while federal immigration authorities, for now, face additional restrictions at the eight religious sites, while retaining broader enforcement authority elsewhere.

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