Practical Steps for Protecting People and Property Against Illegal Enforcement Actions by Immigration Officials

Article by Rev. Dr. Ellen Clark Clemot, Esq., Senior Counsel

When Immigration and Customs Enforcement (“ICE”) officials arrive at your door with guns drawn, a judicial warrant in hand, and identify themselves as ICE federal agents, it’s best to step aside and let them pursue their target. But more typically, ICE arrests are carried out in violation of due process rights, without warning and often by individuals who are not identifiable as law enforcement. Faith leaders and faith-based organizations offering compassionate care to the public now face frightening intrusions.

Ever since January 2025, ICE has begun invading spaces long-considered off limits for police activity: houses of worship, schools, and court houses. Clients of your not-for-profit food pantry, members of your house of worship, or volunteers at your community resource center are experiencing fear. In New York City, and other communities across the nation, congregations are afraid of unwarranted ICE raids. Fewer people are coming to pick up the groceries and personal care items because fear of arrest is keeping them away, regardless of their visa status. Yet the work you do, the mission you embody, and the service you provide is essential for their survival.

We want to encourage faith-based communities to continue their good work of community care while keeping safety in mind. In this article we offer concrete ways to prepare for possible intervention by ICE. We provide legal context for the current situation, and practical steps you can take to protect your staff, property, and clients in case of unlawful enforcement on your campus. Legitimate enforcement activity is not at issue here. But reports are legion that due process rights have all but disappeared from the enforcement agent handbook. We want our clients and friends of the firm to be prepared.

What’s Happening?

Recent arrests of migrants have been conducted by masked individuals who purport to be ICE agents, without identification or explanation, in court houses[1], on city streets[2], and even from naturalization hearings.[3] This increased immigration enforcement activity, carried out without regard to due process procedures or the constitutional rights guaranteed to citizens and resident aliens alike, have only served to delegitimize the work of federal enforcement agents. Their disregard for the Rule of Law is alarming, sparking nationwide protests. Yet the problem persists, making your faith-based community outreach more important than ever. We want to provide you with information to lawfully defend yourselves from illegal actions carried out by federal agents who have now traumatized the very institutions they were meant to protect.

Houses of Worship as Protected Spaces – What Went Wrong in 2025

Just like courthouses and schools, the physical space in and around houses of worship had enjoyed a protected status from warrantless searches and seizures in the years prior to 2025. In fact, during my fifteen years of parish ministry, the only police presence I ever witnessed at my small-town church, was the cop who loved the music so much he would stop in to listen to choir practice from a back pew on Thursday nights. And he was a congregant. We never really knew if he was there on duty or for worship.

But times have changed. Gone are the days when houses of worship could be described as “sanctuaries” – places of spiritual renewal and refuge from the worries of the everyday world. In some faith traditions, the site dedicated for worship of the sacred is considered holy ground. Intrusion of police enforcement authorities into a house of worship would not only defile the sanctity of the space, but it would also be a fundamental violation of the separation between church and state, a rupture of the barrier between the sacred and the profane. This preservation of holy ground was first threatened by incursions from ICE officials into houses of worship during the first Trump Administration in 2017, when federal agents sought to arrest immigrants seeking refuge in “sanctuary churches.” Four years later, the Biden administration took steps to formalize the protections of houses of worship as “sensitive locations” that should be recognized as off-limits to ICE officials for targeted enforcement actions. On October 27, 2021, President Biden’s Secretary of Homeland Security, Alejandro Mayorkas, issued a memorandum naming schools, courtrooms, and houses of worship as “protected areas,” and prohibited ICE enforcement action in or near these spaces.

But on his first day of office this year, on January 21, 2025, President Trump rescinded the Mayorkas memo and permitted ICE agents to take enforcement action in sensitive protected areas. Now nowhere is safe. And worse, no one is safe. The current Administration has encouraged the arrest and removal of anyone who has spoken out against policies favored by the President, or perceived to be a threat against national policies, including international students, permanent U.S. residents born abroad, even against U.S. citizens born here but dependent on immigrant parents. All this within 100 days of the Presidential inauguration.

No wonder this vulnerable population of migrants, U.S. permanent residents, and U.S. naturalized citizens are afraid. And so are the many of you who are faith leaders, volunteer workers, and managers of the non-profits who serve for the good of society to feed, clothe, and assist the destitute, the new migrant, and the oppressed. Your properties and mission outreach spaces welcome all – but suddenly your good will and open doors have been jeopardized by illegal enforcement activity. Understanding the difference between lawful enforcement and illegal actions is crucial to addressing the safety and service challenges you face today.

Where We find Hope – Court Decisions and Pending Legislation

The two areas of potential reprieve and the restoration of everyone’s constitutional rights rest with the legislature and the courts. A third area is with the press: publicity about the wrongs that are happening, when, where and to whom. With national press attention, and amplification of these reports by every day voters demanding change by their legislators in Washington D.C. can also make a difference at the ballot box.

For now, there is one legislative spot of hope: the implementation of the proposed “Protecting Sensitive Locations Act,” a bill introduced in February 2025 before Congress that would prohibit immigration enforcement actions by Department of Homeland Security (“DHS”) officers or agents within 1,000 feet of sensitive locations. These locations would include medical treatment and health care facilities, public and private schools and education related locations, places where children gather, places providing social services, places of worship, government buildings, and at public demonstrations, such as a march, rally, or parade. The bill provides exceptions for situations involving imminent risk of death, violence or threat to public safety when enforcement agents would be allowed access to sensitive sites. It would require annual policy training for DHS officers and would prevent any deportations stemming from violations of the sensitive space policy.

In the Courts, more immediate progress has been shown in limited instances and with mixed results. On February 24, 2025, a U.S. Federal District Judge in Md. restored sensitive location status to three religious organizations: the Society of Friends (Quakers), the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, and the Sikhs. These three groups now enjoy protection against ICE enforcement action on their premises and a return to the status quo.

But in a case filed a few weeks before it, on February 11, 2025,[4] a much larger collection of 27 faith communities (including the Episcopal Church, the Presbyterian Church (USA), United Methodist Church, and AME Zion Church) sought the same relief but lost in a ruling issued April 11th, 2025, by a District Judge in D.C. The decision was based on plaintiffs’ lack of standing and failure to meet legal standards necessary for a preliminary injunction, despite their claim that ICE arrests at a house of worship violate 1st Amendment religious freedoms.

We anticipate that the most effective actions will be brought by individuals who have been wrongly arrested and detained by ICE, without due process. If more detainees can litigate, assisted by immigration and class action specialists like the A.C.L.U., we are hopeful that the Rule of Law will be restored. But the damage has been done. A climate of fear pervades the country and faith-based institutions are the first to see its effects.

What You Can Do to Protect Your Property and Your People

There are steps to take in preparing your faith community to face these uncertain times, to protect your premises from illegal searches and seizures by ICE officials, and to protect the vulnerable populations you serve. The first is to know that it is not wrong to continue the implementation of your faith mission: to welcome the stranger, feed the hungry, and offer assistance to people facing oppression of all kinds. You never have to know or ask people’s nationality or visa status in order to serve them, and that has not changed.

Here are some steps you can take to protect your staff members and people who come to your locations for worship or assistance. Teach them to know their rights, reduce bottle-neck risks to visitors on-site, and remind all vulnerable people to have a plan of communication and family care if they face arrest.

You have Rights!

Every person in the U.S., regardless of immigration status, has some basic rights.

Limiting Access to your Property

Discourage Entry by ICE. Some faith groups in New York City have posted this message on their front doors: “We are a sanctuary community that welcomes and serves all persons, regardless of their immigration status. ICE is not welcome here. To this end, we DO NOT consent to entry to this property by ICE or any official conducting immigration enforcement actions.”

Mark Private/Employee-Only Areas. Inside your building, mark areas that are private: church offices, certain staff areas. These areas should be consistently and clearly marked private. These are private property areas where ICE agents cannot legally access. Public areas are where worship space is held and where life assistance items are distributed to members of the public.

Train Your Staff to Request and Read Warrants. If ICE agents demand entry to your property, do not allow them entry unless they present a judicial warrant (one signed by a judge of the local federal district where your building is located). Do not open the door to a federal agent. Have them slide the warrant under the door or hold it up to the glass. The warrant has a time limit and staff need to read it to see if it has expired and if it was signed by a judge, as opposed to an administration official at DHS. If a law enforcement official presents a judicial warrant to access your premises, you must let them in. But you do not have to help them search or locate anyone. You have the right to remain silent at all times. Have a plan for your staff to call for help: an immigration attorney or other counsel who can be present or offer advice by phone.

Take a Video of the Intervention. If ICE agents access your property, encourage your staff, or whoever might be present, to turn on their phone video recorder. Announce to the federal agents that you are filming. Do not otherwise interfere with their work. You do not have to answer any questions. Have your staff practice what to do and who to call for help. If a person on your faith-based organization’s campus is arrested by ICE, help carry out their plan to contact that person’s family members and lawyer after the arrest.

Have a Plan. Encourage all vulnerable people on your campus to have a plan for what to do if they are arrested, and how to set up a daisy chain of contacts who can help contact other family members and friends who depend on that person for care. In every plan: do they have a buddy? Identify the primary person responsible for spreading the word in case of detention. Make sure they know who to call for legal counsel and have plans in place for childcare or emergency school pick-up. If there are elderly family members at home, ensure there’s a contact person and caregiver support arranged. For pets, have a trusted neighbor or designated caretaker ready, detention cases can last for months.

Organize Assistance Distribution Process. For faith communities that house food pantries, clothing distribution centers, and other creature care assistance, reconfigure your distribution process to make access by vulnerable populations easier. Offer grocery bag pick up or outdoor drop off to clients who are reluctant to come inside. If distribution is only available indoors, mark alternative exits and reduce bottlenecks where people congregate or wait to acquire goods. Even if the food pantry is part of a separate corporate entity, the space is still considered public, and it will not be possible to close it off entirely. If enforcement agents come with a judicial warrant to access this space, they must be allowed entry.

In considering what to do and how to address this time of fear and foreboding at faith-based organizations, on your physical premises, remember your rights and your obligations. We must obey the law when justly enforced. But we must also protest violations of the law even if these violations are carried out by law-enforcement officials. We all have rights to disagree with policies and to voice our beliefs. We have rights to remain silent and to have counsel. We have rights to due process: a hearing before a judge, clear articulation of charges being brought, the right to a bail hearing, the right to timely adjudication of any charges brought.

It is not a crime to be present in the U.S. without a visa, to protest at a rally, or to overstay a visa. But exploiting the generosity of faith-based institutions by federal enforcement officials laying-in wait for immigrants at a house of worship ought to be. Until there is a policy change, new legislation, or a court ruling that protects all faith communities as sensitive spaces protected equally, we encourage you all to carry on with your good work and be vigilant. We’re here if you need us. We can help.

[1] See, case of an exonerated prisoner at the Albemarle County Courthouse in Charlottesville, Va., after the man’s case was dismissed, on April 22, 2025, who was then arrested in the vestibule by unidentified individuals, claiming to be Homeland Security officials, without a warrant, uniforms, or charges brought against the individual they handcuffed and drove away in an unmarked car.

[2] See, case of Rumeysa Ozturk, a Turkish doctoral student at Tufts University, arrested by ICE plainclothes immigration officers in the evening of March 25, 2025, outside her student apartment. They drove her in shackles to New Hampshire, then to Vermont, and then flew her to Louisiana where she has suffered from four asthma attacks at a detention center she has described in a sworn statement as “unsanitary, unsafe, and inhumane.”

[3] See arrest of Palestinian student Mohsen Mahdawi, on April 14, 2025, at his U.S. naturalization hearing, a scheduled appointment in Colchester, Vt, after he had sworn his oath of allegiance to the U.S. and signed his immigration papers for U.S. citizenship. He has not been charged with a crime but had protested the Israel-Gaza war while on Columbia’s campus last year.

[4] See Mennonite Church USA et al. vs. U.S. Department of Homeland Security et al. filed as Case 1:25-cv-00403 on 2.11.2025, and Memorandum Opinion from U.S.D.C., D.C., dated April 11, 2025.