Leaders and members of a Minnesota Baptist church were stunned and angered to learn recently that an undercover immigration agent entered their facilities to spy on the congregation in May.
The Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer reportedly entered University Baptist Church in Minneapolis to secretly record conversations with worshipers and in the process may have violated a temporary injunction barring immigration enforcement actions in sensitive locations such as houses of worship.
Interim Pastor Cody Sanders
“Feelings range from anger over this violation of the church’s sacred space — not to mention the violation of the injunction — to a sense of vulnerability when the sanctity of faith communities is defiled by the activity of undercover government agents,” Interim Pastor Cody Sanders said. “Of course, we know many others have experienced these sorts of activities for decades, especially our Muslim siblings in their houses of worship.”
The Alliance of Baptists, American Baptist Churches USA and other plaintiffs in the 2025 sensitive locations lawsuit filed a motion to comply in U.S. District Court in Massachusetts Aug. 20 over the “egregious violations of the preliminary injunction, including deploying an undercover ICE agent into one of plaintiffs’ protected churches to surveil and record people inside. Plaintiffs respectfully request that the court issue an order to show cause why defendants should not be held in contempt for violating the preliminary injunction.”
Sanders added he has no idea why his congregation was targeted for surveillance.
“Discovering that this activity had taken place when the news broke last week was news to UBC’s leadership. We’ve long been a place of expansive welcome and partnership with many justice-striving organizations in our community. Of course, several other congregations and other organizations were similarly targeted during the ICE occupation of the Twin Cities.”
Outrage has been building in Minnesota and beyond since news broke that the Department of Homeland Security ordered a massive surveillance operation against anti-immigration operations during the height of its violent deportation crackdown in the state earlier this year.
Instead of investigating the ICE and Border Patrol agents involved in the fatal shootings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, the agencies started monitoring and infiltrating left-leaning groups such as climate change organizations, labor unions and churches, The New York Times reported.
DHS records described “an expansive covert surveillance operation in which undercover agents spied on protesters and organizers at meetings held online, as well as in libraries, parks and churches, taking down not only what they said, but also their names and sometimes license plate numbers.”
The investigations came to light when federal authorities filed court documents related to a conspiracy case against 15 anti-ICE protesters in Minnesota. Religion News Service reported that at least five churches in that state and Michigan were spied on from outside and inside their facilities as part of the operation.
RNS identified an Episcopal parish in St. Paul as the target of an undercover agent who attended an activist group’s meeting at the church in April. First Universalist Church in Minneapolis and two Evangelical Lutheran Church in America congregations — one in Minnesota, one in Michigan — also were spied on at one point.
Court filings identified the Alliance of Baptists and ABCUSA-affiliated congregation as the site of a “left-wing martial arts group” meeting in its gymnasium.
UBC’s place on the target list came to light in court filings that identified the Alliance of Baptists and ABCUSA-affiliated congregation as the site of a “left-wing martial arts group” meeting in its gymnasium May 28, Minnesota MPR News reported. The document said a female agent engaged in sparring with other participants and asked them questions about how they became involved with the group. The agent unknowingly dropped her recording device and came back three minutes later to retrieve it.
MPR News also reported that operatives conducted surveillance around UBC no less than three times from April to June. “Agents recorded people entering and leaving the church. They also took photos of cars around the building and ran license plates to discover people’s identities.”
But U.S. District Judge Dennis Saylor in Boston blocked a new federal policy in February that allowed ICE to conduct immigration enforcement actions in churches, schools and hospitals. The DHS directive ending decades of protections for those spaces was challenged by more than 20 faith groups, including the Alliance and ABCUSA, in New England Synod, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, et al. v. DHS.
That order followed a 2025 decision in Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends v. DHS granting a coalition of faith groups — including the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship — immunity from ICE raids as the litigation continues.
The motion to comply filed in response to the church infiltrations said DHS has blatantly and repeatedly violated the injunction and caused harm to plaintiffs’ religious rights.
“The preliminary injunction order strictly proscribes enforcement actions in ‘Protected Area(s),’ a term that includes both plaintiffs’ houses of worship and the surrounding property, such as “any parking lot (or) walkway,” the motion reads. “The order defines ‘Immigration Enforcement Action’ broadly to include ‘any action by defendants that is planned, conducted, undertaken or executed, in whole or in part, to enforce the immigration laws of the United States, including any … search, interrogation, questioning, interview or investigation.”
Plaintiffs in New England Synod are represented by Democracy Forward, the Washington Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs and Gilbert LLC.
Skye Perryman
“Alarming evidence has shown that despite a court ordering them not to do so, ICE agents continue to invade churches and other places of sanctuary, terrorizing the people who seek refuge and respite within them,” Democracy Forward President Skye Perryman said. “It is clear that the government will stop at nothing — including at church doors — in its campaign to stoke fear in communities across the country, so we are asking the court to hold them accountable for this intrusion.”
What it boils down to is DHS and ICE feeling threatened by churches and others who serve immigrants and other targeted groups, Sanders said.
“We often think of ‘care’ as soft or even weak expression. But historically, caring for people and communities that the power structure has deemed disposable has been a threat to power,” he said. “When churches like University Baptist and our many sibling congregations intervene in those efforts to abandon vulnerable or marginalized people, by serving the community, standing in solidarity with the vulnerable, following the ways of Jesus by siding with those with their backs against the wall, we become a threat to the power structures. Kind of like Jesus. So, we’re in good company.”
Sanders added that UBC has no plans at the moment to adopt special security measures to thwart possible ICE intrusions in the future. “We continue to be a community of peace rooted in justice, standing in solidarity with our community and welcoming others to join us in that good work. We don’t want this instance to cultivate a sense of fear of paranoia, and the best antidote to fear is to strengthen the bonds of community.”