Report: Policy of immigration enforcement treating churches as ‘sensitive areas’ could end

Groups of migrants wait outside the Migrant Resource Center to receive food from the San Antonio Catholic Charities on Sept. 19, 2022, in San Antonio, Texas. / Credit: Jordan Vonderhaar/Getty Images

CNA Staff, Dec 13, 2024 / 09:30 am (CNA).

The incoming presidential administration reportedly plans to end a long-standing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) policy requiring ICE agents to seek their superior’s approval before arresting people at “sensitive locations” such as churches, hospitals, or schools.

A Dec. 11 NBC News story, citing three unnamed sources, reported that President-elect Donald Trump plans to rescind the policy, which has been in place since 2011 and was expanded in late 2021 under the Biden administration, possibly as soon as his first day in office.

Trump has frequently touted a planned program of mass deportations of illegal immigrants, a plan that bishops and other Catholic leaders have criticized as inhumane.

The “sensitive locations” policy began in 2011 with a memo from then-ICE director John Morton, which precludes ICE agents from carrying out immigration enforcement actions in locations like hospitals, places of worship, schools, or during events such as weddings or parades unless there is an urgent need, such as a person who poses an imminent threat, or if the agents have sought higher approval to do so.

The prospective new policy follows a recommendation in the influential document “Mandate for Leadership 2025: The Conservative Promise,” also known as Project 2025, in a section overseen by Ken Cuccinelli, a Catholic and former U.S. Department of Homeland Security official in Trump’s first administration.

The document calls for the elimination of policies that prohibit ICE personnel from operating in “sensitive locations,” arguing instead that the agency should rely on “the good judgment of officers in the field to avoid inappropriate situations.”

Striking a balance

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) has spoken frequently to urge the government to reform the immigration system with “fair and humane treatment” of immigrants. 

CNA reached out to the USCCB for comment on the prospective “sensitive location” policy change but did not hear back by publication time. 

The Catholic Legal Immigration Network, Inc. (CLINIC) a group launched by the U.S. bishops in 1988 to support community-based immigration programs and represent low-income migrants, said it is “deeply concerned about any changes that would undermine the safety and well-being of immigrants and their families.”

“Sensitive locations — such as houses of worship, schools, and hospitals — are sanctuaries where individuals seek solace, education, and critical care without fear of intimidation or detention,” Anna Gallagher, CLINIC’s executive director, said in a statement to CNA.

“This policy has long recognized the importance of these spaces for fostering trust and community stability. Rescinding it would not only disrupt families and communities but could also deter individuals from accessing essential services, such as education and health care, or practicing their faith freely … We call for the preservation of protections at sensitive locations to ensure immigrants and their families can live without fear and fulfill their basic needs, including the practice of religion.”

Several immigration policy experts CNA spoke with were mixed on the idea of ending the “sensitive locations” policy. 

Paul Hunker, a Catholic and immigration attorney who previously served as ICE’s chief counsel in Dallas, described Morton’s original 2011 memo that created the policy as “a very reasonable way to look at things” and “a very fine memo that strikes the right balance.”

He pointed out that even if a person in the country illegally sought to tie ICE’s hands by taking refuge in one of the “sensitive areas” — like a church — the memo still allows ICE to take action if there is a threat to the public or if a superior officer thinks it is appropriate to do so.

According to Hunker, rescinding the policy is likely “a bad idea” because rescinding it is, in his view, a fear-based tactic that could keep undocumented people away from faith-based organizations, like the Catholic Church, that could help them.

“We want people, whether they’re undocumented or not, to go to church, right? And I think this could scare people and deter people from going … I think this is part of the government’s effort to scare people so they’ll leave and self-deport,” he opined to CNA. 

Despite the impending change, Hunker said he thinks it is unlikely that ICE will begin carrying out large-scale arrests at houses of worship. 

“ICE officers are generally reasonable people, so I don’t think you’re going to see [officers] barging into Mass at 9:00,” Hunker said.

But, he added, “I think they’re trying to make people think it could happen; scare them.”

Jessica Vaughan, director of policy studies for the Center for Immigration Studies, a D.C.-based group that favors lower immigration numbers, similarly opined that a rescinding of the policy will not necessarily lead to ICE operations at Mass or in schools but would rather remove what she sees as a constriction on ICE caused by an “overly broad” definition of “sensitive area” put forth under President Joe Biden.

The Biden administration’s expanded definition of “sensitive area” added places like playgrounds, homeless shelters, emergency response centers, and domestic violence shelters. 

“[The policy change] is mainly going to remove some of the unreasonable restrictions that the Biden administration put onto ICE and send a message to individuals who want to try to flee from ICE that they have fewer places to hide,” Vaughan told CNA. 

Addressing the idea that the policy change could be intended to cause fear, Vaughan said it is better to “gain voluntary compliance” with immigration law than to punish people for violating it. 

“Ultimately, that is a more humane way to achieve the goal of encouraging legal immigration and discouraging illegal immigration,” she said.