A federal judge refused to block immigration actions near Minnesota schools while other courts consider Trump administration appeals to rulings in other lawsuits against raids at or near sensitive locations.
The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship alerted partner congregations this week that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit in Richmond, Va., was set to hear oral arguments in litigation it joined to prevent anti-immigrant operations on or close to houses of worship.
CBF and other faith-groups in Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends v. U.S. Department of Homeland Security obtained a temporary restraining order in February 2025. DHS subsequently appealed the ruling that protects plaintiffs’ congregations alone.
The dispute arose when the Trump administration rescinded a decades-old policy directing Immigration and Customs Enforcement and other DHS agents from apprehending undocumented immigrants near religious, educational or medical facilities.
Jennifer Hawks
“We are confident in our attorneys and in the law supporting this injunction, which protects the First Amendment rights of CBF and our partner congregations,” said Jennifer Hawks, director of advocacy at CBF.
Hawks added that she hopes the administration will reconsider its decision to open sensitive locations to immigration enforcement actions. “If not, we hope Congress moves quickly to pass the Protecting Sensitive Locations Act so the religious freedom of houses of worship and common-sense protections for schools and hospitals might be reinstated.”
CBF invited Cooperative Baptists to pray for the lawsuit as it winds its way through the courts and also to pray for immigrants, families and communities affected by the federal policy.
CBF’s fellow plaintiffs include a Sikh temple in Sacramento, Calif., and six Quaker yearly meetings in Maryland, Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania and Virginia. These groups, along with those in the CBF case, are represented by Democracy Forward.
Steve Mohlke
“The New York Yearly Meeting is dedicated to ensuring that our places of worship remain safe, inclusive spaces where all individuals can practice their faith and engage in community. We are also committed to safeguarding and supporting our immigrant friends and neighbors,” said Steve Mohlke, general secretary of the regional association of Quaker groups.
The Alliance of Baptists updated its partner churches on the status of New England Synod, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, et al. v. Department of Homeland Security. The Alliance and American Baptist Churches USA are among the plaintiffs in that action.
Their case is currently before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit in Massachusetts after the Trump administration appealed a lower court decision in February to grant a preliminary injunction as the case moves forward.
That “means protections for churches and other religious spaces remain active while the case moves forward. Importantly, Alliance of Baptists congregations are included among those protected under this injunction, which restricts immigration enforcement at designated places of worship.”
Other plaintiffs include ELCA regions in California, England, Wisconsin and Texas, in addition to Metropolitan Community Churches and Quaker groups in California, Hawaii, Nevada, Mexico City, Montana, Oregon and Washington.
However, a coalition of Minnesota educators and school districts was denied their request for an injunction to stop ICE raids at schools and bus stops as federal litigation progresses.
Laura Provinzino
U.S. District Judge Laura Provinzino in St. Paul ruled May 6 that Fridley Public Schools, Duluth Public Schools and the Education Minnesota teachers’ union failed to show a likelihood of succeeding in their lawsuit against the policy allowing enforcement actions at or near sensitive locations.
The problem, Povinzino explained, is that previous policies limiting those raids were largely suggestive and “did not preclude” such actions if circumstances based on officials’ discretion.
“For example, the 2021 Guidance directed DHS only ‘to refrain, to the fullest extent possible, from conducting a law enforcement action in or near a protected area,’ and further states that the phrase ‘to the fullest extent possible’ recognizes that there might be limited circumstances under which an enforcement action needs to be taken in or near a protected area.”
Even the 1993 policy that initiated the protections “never categorically prohibited” enforcement actions near schools, houses of worship and hospitals.
“But the 2025 Guidance nonetheless directs DHS officers to use their enforcement discretion ‘with a healthy dose of common sense’” and charges immigration officials with “responsibility for making case-by-case determinations regarding whether, where and when to conduct an immigration enforcement action in or near a protected area,” the judge said.
“What has changed, evidently, is DHS’ willingness — not its authority — to conduct immigration enforcement activity at or near protected areas like schools. But such immigration enforcement has always been subject to DHS’s judgment and discretion, even under the 2021 Guidance.”
But Fridley Public School District (ISD 14) et al. v. Mullin et al argues DHS and ICE have far exceeded discretion and common sense by stoking chaos and fear with open apprehensions at and around school properties and bus stops. The situation has led to significant decreases in school attendance and a rise in anxiety among families and communities.
According to the action filed in February, “On Jan. 31, 2026, DHS agents staged their enforcement operations in the parking lot of at least two Fridley Schools buildings. DHS agents have followed Fridley Schools leadership, including its superintendent and school board members.”
“DHS agents have followed Fridley Schools leadership, including its superintendent and school board members.”
Another January incident occurred at a high school in Minneapolis. “According to school officials, when school was dismissed for the day, DHS agents came onto school property and ‘began tackling people, handcuffed two staff members and released chemical weapons on bystanders.’ According to witnesses and video footage, officers dragged a person on a sidewalk outside of the school, broke out the window of a vehicle, and tear-gassed staff and students.”
Plaintiffs in the lawsuit are represented by Democracy Forward, Zimmerman Reed LLP, Nilan Johnson Lewis PA, and The Law Office of Kevin C. Riach.
“For decades, our schools have been recognized as places where students can learn and grow without fear,” the coalition said after Provinzino’s ruling. “The Trump-Vance administration’s decision to allow immigration enforcement at and around schools has disrupted classrooms, driven families away, and created an environment of fear that no child should have to endure.”
And the ruling will not result in the districts and union giving up, they said. “We brought this case because every student deserves access to education in a safe and stable environment, and we will continue fighting to restore those protections and ensure that schools remain places of learning, not fear.”
Tom Homan
Speaking at a Turning Point USA rally at Baylor University in April, Trump Border Czar Tom Homan denounced those who claim federal agents are arresting immigrants at churches and schools and sensitive locations.
He has been told, he said, to “stay off sensitive locations, churches, schools, hospitals.”
His response: “First of all, we do, but there’s no sanctuary for a national security threat or significant public safety threat. There’s no sanctuary. And we’ll go where we got to go.”
Then he demanded: “Name one instance, please. Name one instance where we went into a church to arrest somebody. Give me one. Give me one when we went into an elementary school to arrest somebody. Give me one. Give me one time we went to a hospital to arrest somebody. This is a false media. This is the media lying to the American people, trying to vilify us.”
Homan told the Baylor students the fear of ICE in the immigrant community has been generated “by the Left that want to vilify ICE.”