A federal appeals court has revived a lawsuit filed by FaithWorks and more than two dozen other religious organizations to prevent immigration enforcement actions in houses of worship and other sensitive locations. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District…
Reflecting on ‘Pastor Spies’ in Minnesota
As I read through some U.S. Department of Homeland Security documents in August that showed DHS spied inside churches in Minnesota and Michigan, I reached out to pastors of the congregations. None knew about the spying until it showed up…
Civil rights groups sued to stop DHS voter intimidation
Civil rights and voting rights organizations have sued the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to stop its “secretive and unlawful effort” to gather and use sensitive voter information to help sabotage next month’s midterm elections. “DHS claims that it needs…
Trump loses lawsuit over partisan ads paid for with public funds
A federal judge has ordered the Trump administration to stop using taxpayer dollars to pay for political advertisements extolling the president’s policies ahead of the midterm elections. U.S. District Judge Jennifer Roston in New York issued a temporary restraining order…
Trump administration announces plan to remove resettled refugees
The Trump administration is laying the groundwork to detain and deport refugees lawfully resettled in the United States. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services posted an interim final rule reducing the amount of time individuals can contest the termination of their…
Trove of documents shows Trump plans to subvert midterms
Ongoing legal developments are casting light on the disturbing lengths the Trump administration is willing to go to subvert the November midterms. Democracy Forward announced Oct. 7 its receipt of records from Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement…
The corruption of US immigration enforcement
The single most corrupt thing so far about the current United States federal government under this president is the corruption of the immigration enforcement bureaucracy. There are many competitors for this sad award, but at the level of government policy,…
The tragic targeting of Christians by the Trump administration
Conservative Christians and members of the Trump administration have proclaimed this current government as a defender of Christianity and religious freedom. These proclamations are completely dismissive of numerous instances to the contrary, including the latest heartbreaking news that our government…
DHS claims it did not violate court order by spying on Baptist church
The Trump administration claims its spy mission in a Baptist church did not violate an injunction barring immigration actions on or around the property because its operative infiltrated a gathering other than a worship service, according to an Aug. 23…
Department of Homeland Security Spied on Churches in the Twin Cities
According to documents filed in federal court this week, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security sent undercover agents into church buildings to track activists attending events at Lutheran, Baptist, Episcopal, and Universalist churches in Minnesota’s Twin Cities (and an event…
Court demands DHS release migrant witness to Houston murder
A federal court has ordered the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to release a key witness in the killing of a Mexican national by an immigration agent in Houston. Jose Trinidad Rojas Pliego was one of three men riding to…
Don’t look away: ICE and CBP are getting away with murder
I grew up in a suburb of Dallas. I don’t know how many of my classmates were undocumented — we never thought to ask. It was the late 1980s and early ’90s, after all. A few years later, I was…