Most Americans oppose immigration raids in sensitive locations such as churches, schools and hospitals, according to a new Pew Research Center study. But Republicans are exceptions to this view.
Majorities of all Americans say arrests should not be allowed in places of worship (65%), schools (63%) and hospitals (61%). However, most support arrests of illegal immigrants at rallies and protests (66%), homes (63%) and workplaces (54%), Pew reported.
In ramping up its controversial deportation campaign earlier this year, the Trump administration cleared the way for U.S. Customs and Border Protection and Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to pursue undocumented immigrants into previously off-limits sacred, health care and educational spaces.
“Criminals will no longer be able to hide in America’s schools and churches to avoid arrest. The Trump administration will not tie the hands of our brave law enforcement, and instead trusts them to use common sense,” the Department of Homeland Security announced in January.
But the decision was quickly met with legal opposition. A coalition of Quaker meetings, later joined by the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, filed a federal lawsuit to prevent immigration agents from entering houses of worship to arrest undocumented immigrants. Plaintiffs were granted a temporary restraining order exempting only their organizations from enforcement actions.
A separate lawsuit filed by 27 religious groups also seeks to block ICE raids on church properties. Plaintiffs in that case include Fellowship Southwest, the Hispanic Baptist Convention of Texas, the Mennonite Church, the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, the United Church of Christ, the Episcopal Church and the Presbyterian Church (USA).
Both suits argue raids on churches violate the right to freedom of worship and expression enshrined in the First Amendment and the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.
“The recent revocation of the sensitive location status is already harming the ministries of many of our congregations, the work of our field personnel and the life of our Fellowship,” CBF Executive Coordinator Paul Baxley said when CBF joined the earlier litigation.
“As a Fellowship, we have experienced a clear and unmistakable calling to be a community that is more racially, ethnically, generationally and geographically diverse as we believe this reflects the mission of God and the character of Jesus. The revocation of sensitive location status for houses of worship has also harmed our capacity to live into that divine calling.”
The Pew study found most Americans take an equally dim view of allowing arrests of illegal immigrants in sensitive locations, with only 37% approving such enforcement in hospitals, 35% in schools and 33% in worship spaces.
Majorities of Republicans, however, approve of raids in all three kinds of spaces, including hospitals (61%), schools (58%) and houses of worship (52%). By comparison, only 14% of Democrats approve of arrests in schools and 15% each in hospitals and religious locations.
White respondents expressed the highest level of support for arrests in hospitals (46%), schools (43%) and religious institutions (39%), compared to Black respondents’ approval for hospital (22%), school (24%) and church (19%) raids. Hispanics were the least approving of arrests in hospitals (19%), schools (20%) and places of worship (19%).
When Pew asked respondents about the Trump administration’s deportation efforts, it found 52% of all U.S. adults agree some undocumented immigrants should be deported compared to 32% who said all immigrants in the nation illegally should be removed.
Of those who believe only some should be deported, 97% said immigrants who have committed violent crimes should be ejected from the U.S. However, that group was divided when asked if immigrants convicted of nonviolent crimes should be deported (52%) or if they entered the country within the past four years (44%). Only 9% said Dreamers should be deported.
Republicans expressed significantly stricter views on issues related to immigration and deportation. More than half (54%) said all undocumented immigrants should be deported, compared to 10% of Democrats. And 81% of Republicans said law enforcement officers should be allowed to check an individual’s immigration status during a traffic stop. Only 33% of Democrats agreed.
Three quarters of Democrats said Trump has overreached in his deportation campaign, a sentiment agreed to by only 13% of Republicans.