Appeals court blocks ICE arrests at some houses of worship

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit this week upheld a ban on immigration-related arrests outside some houses of worship. The ban is temporary, but it will remain in place while a lawsuit over immigration officers’ arrest policies makes its way through the court system. The ruling only applies to the entities named in the lawsuit: six Quaker groups, a Sikh temple in Sacramento, Calif., and the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, a denomination with 1,400 local congregations.

The case stems from a 2025 memo for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection, released just after President Donald Trump took office. The memo rescinded the guidelines of former President Joe Biden’s administration, which directed immigration officers not to arrest people in and near houses of worship unless there was no safe alternative. The appeals court ruled that for now, immigration officers must abide by the older policy.

What was the judges’ reasoning for the decision? Among other considerations, judges said that the new arrest policy already caused some immigrants to stop attending their religious gatherings. All of the congregations that brought the lawsuit argued that communal worship was an important element of their faith. That drop in attendance burdened the religious groups’ right to freely exercise their religion, the judges said.

Dig deeper: Read Josh Schumacher’s report on the Department of Homeland Security’s record number of arrests in July.