Massive lawsuits filed against mass deportaton by dozens of churches to protect immigrants- legal and illegal

Support to protect immigrants from mass deportations. Churches are flooding the justice department with lawsuits to prevent raids on religous properety especially during reigious services. Echo report published in the The Post-Star by David Carey (AP).

Fatima Guzman prays during a church service at the Centro Christiano El Pan de Vida a Chrurch of God prophecy congregation, in Florida.

More than two-dozen Christian✝️ and Jewish 🕎groups representing millions of Americans — ranging from the Episcopal Church and the Union for Reform Judaism✡️ to the Mennonites and Unitarian Universalists — filed a federal court lawsuit Tuesday challenging a Trump administration move giving immigration agents more leeway to make arrests at houses of worship.

The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Washington, contends that the new policy is spreading fear of raids, thus lowering attendance at worship services and other valuable church programs. The result, says the suit, infringes on the groups’ religious freedom — namely their ability to minister to migrants, including those in the United States illegally.

“We have immigrants, refugees, people who are documented and undocumented,” said the Most Rev. Sean Rowe, the presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church.

“We cannot worship freely if some of us are living in fear,” he told The Associated Press. “By joining this lawsuit, we’re seeking the ability to gather and fully practice our faith, to follow Jesus’ command to love our neighbors as ourselves.”

The new lawsuit echoes and expands on some of the arguments made in a similar lawsuit filed Jan. 27 by five Quaker congregations and later joined by the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship and a Sikh temple. It is currently pending in U.S. District Court in Maryland.

There was no immediate Trump administration response to the new lawsuit, which names the Department of Homeland Security and its immigration enforcement agencies as defendants. However, a memorandum filed Friday by the Department of Justice, opposing the thrust of the Quaker lawsuit, outlined arguments that may also apply to the new lawsuit.

In essence, the memo contended that the plaintiffs’ request to block the new enforcement policy is based on speculation of hypothetical future harm — and thus is insufficient grounds for issuing an injunction.

The memo said that immigration enforcement affecting houses of worship had been permitted for decades, and the new policy announced in January simply said that field agents — using “common sense” and “discretion” — could now conduct such operations without pre-approval from a supervisor.

One part of that memo might not apply to the new lawsuit, as it argued the Quakers and their fellow plaintiffs have no basis for seeking a nationwide injunction against the revised enforcement policy.

Quaker star is a red and black eight-pointed star that symbolizes Quaker service and relief work

“Any relief in this case should be tailored solely to the named plaintiffs,” said the DOJ memo, contending that any injunction should not apply to other religious organizations.

The plaintiffs in the new lawsuit represent a vastly larger swath of American worshippers — including more than 1 million followers of Reform Judaism, the estimated 1.5 million Episcopalians in 6,700 congregations nationwide, nearly 1.1 million members of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), and the estimated 1.5 million active members of the African Methodist Episcopal Church — the country’s oldest predominantly Black denomination.

Among the other plaintiffs are the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), with more than 3,000 congregations; the Church of the Brethren, with more than 780 congregations; the Convención Bautista Hispana de Texas, encompassing about 1,100 Hispanic Baptist churches; the Friends General Conference, an association of regional Quaker organizations; the Mennonite Church USA, with about 50,000 members; the Unitarian Universalist Association, with more than 1,000 congregations; the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism, with more than 500 U.S. congregations; and regional branches of the United Methodist Church and the United Church of Christ.

“The massive scale of the suit will be hard for them to ignore,” said Kelsi Corkran, a lawyer with the Georgetown University Law Center’s Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection who is lead counsel for the lawsuit.

The plaintiffs joined the suit, she said, “because their scripture, teaching, and traditions offer irrefutable unanimity on their religious obligation to embrace and serve the refugees, asylum seekers, and immigrants in their midst without regard to documentation or legal status.”

Prior to the recent Trump administration change, Corkran said immigration agents generally needed a judicial warrant or other special authorization to conduct operations at houses of worship and other “sensitive locations" such as schools and hospitals.

“Now it’s go anywhere, any time,” she told the AP. “Now they have broad authority to swoop in — they’ve made it very clear they’ll get every undocumented person.”

The lawsuit includes details from some of the plaintiffs as to how their operations might be affected. The Union for Reform Judaism and the Mennonites, among others, said many of their synagogues and churches host on-site foodbanks, meal programs, homeless shelters and other support services for undocumented people who might now be fearful of participating.

One of the plaintiffs is the Latino Christian National Network, which seeks to bring together Latino leaders with different traditions and values to collaborate on pressing social issues. The network’s president is the Rev. Carlos Malavé, a pastor of two churches in Virginia, who described to the AP what network members are observing.

“There is deep-seated fear and distrust of our government,” he said. “People fear going to the store, they are avoiding going to church. ... The churches are increasingly doing online services because people fear for the well-being of their families.”

Unfortunately, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, which leads the nation's largest denomination, did not join the lawsuit,😟😧😥 although the bishops criticized Trump's migration crackdown. 

Pope Francis issued a major rebuke of the deportation plan, warning that the forceful removal of people purely because of their illegal status deprives them of their inherent dignity and “will end badly.”

The lawsuit includes details from some of the plaintiffs as to how their operations might be affected. The Union for Reform Judaism and the Mennonites, among others, said many of their synagogues and churches host on-site foodbanks, meal programs, homeless shelters and other support services for undocumented people who might now be fearful of participating.

One of the plaintiffs is the Latino Christian National Network, which seeks to bring together Latino leaders with different traditions and values to collaborate on pressing social issues. The network’s president is the Rev. Carlos Malavé, a pastor of two churches in Virginia, who described to the AP what network members are observing.

Professor Cathleen Kaveny, who teaches in the theology department and law school at Boston College, questioned whether the plaintiffs would prevail with the religious freedom argument, but suggested the Trump administration might be unwise to disregard a traditional view of houses of worship as places of sanctuary for vulnerable people.

“These buildings are different — almost like embassies,” she said. “I think of churches as belonging to an eternal country.”

Beatitudes:  “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy” is a quote from the Bible that appears in Matthew 5:7.

A Midterm 2022 sigh of relief from immigrant Americans

Through My Lens echo opinion by Abdi Nor Iftin: 

Iftin graduated from Boston College with a degree in Political Science in 2022. He currently lives in Portland, Maine, where he works as an interpreter for Somali immigrants, is a regular newspaper columnist.

A happy ending to 2022 for Maine's immigrants

A Somali proverb goes like this: "Be a mountain or lean on one".  This is what was ringing in my mind as text messages came in after the midterm elections.  People felt inspired and both those of us who elected feel proud and partnered in the joys and hopes of others. 

No doubt, the best Christmas gift I could have wished for arrived the day after Election Day.  As a Maine voter, I feel fulfilled. We were able to reject Paul LePage, a governor who attacked the Black and immigrant communities across Maine during his term. This time, we have more immigrants in office in the state, unlike when the former governor was in office. Once again, Maine brings pride to many communities and many countries.

In fact, the results were watched closely not only in Maine but throughout the United States and beyond. As the results came in the celebrations were coming in different at languages in the group chats.  "Hambalyo" is the Somali word for "congratulations" and it was everywhere I looked. Somali Americans are making history once again in Maine, Ohio and Minnesota but uniquely at the state level in Maine. While other Somalis who won seats in other parts of the country seem to have secured city council seats, two Somali Americans were elected to the Maine Legislature, Mana Abdi of Lewiston and Deqa Dhalac of South Portland, and they became the center of the conversations.

There is no legislative body in Somalia, which has suffered from more than 30 years of civil war.  I feel lucky to be engaged in these conversations and talking about what having Somali Americans in state government means to us. Representation matters and we are slowly seeing it in Maine. We desperately need immigrants in the sate Legislature and on city councils as well as in other offices, who can communicate in languages Maine's minorities speak, and connect with their stories and backgrounds. 

These seats now taken by the Somali Mainers and other immigrants are not easily won. They are hard earned even if won without a competing candidate. The Somali community has tolerated a lot - too many hateful words from the former governor, a pigs head thrown into a mosque, being told to only speak in English here- but this election proves we are here to stay and we are here to be who we are: proud Mainer's and proud of where we come from.

When I moved to Maine eight years ago, LePage was the governor. Not a single Somali American held office in the state. There was no representation in Maine. It was hard to feel at home. Instead, it was easy to feel like a stranger, not belonging here, not able to vote and not represented.  I wanted to become a naturalized citizen and can celebrate casting my vote. 

As the New Year arrives, Maine's immigrant students will return to classes motivated to be involved in Maine politics, because they see a way to do that here. They have mountains to lean on. With the Maine's different communities, we can all create the state we want to live in together without worrying that someday someone will tell us that we are foreigners.