In New England Synod, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America v. Department of Homeland Security, 22 religious organizations are suing the Trump administration, claiming its immigration enforcement policy makes illegal aliens fear attending their services, which has caused an attendance decline that these groups say burdens their religious rights in violation of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.
The lawsuit was filed July 28, 2025, challenging the Trump administration's policy allowing immigration enforcement at churches and other houses of worship, but an amended complaint filed in June 2026 — after Judge F. Dennis Saylor IV issued an order in February blocking the policy for the plaintiffs — added 11 new plaintiffs, doubling the number in the case.
The plaintiffs comprise a coalition of regional church bodies, primarily Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), but Democracy Forward is also representing Quaker meetings and Christian denominations in the case.
Trump's policy is a modification of a prior Biden policy of barring all immigration law enforcement in or around so-called "protected areas," including religious services, unless approved by agency headquarters in Washington. Trump has rescinded this policy, replacing it with a more flexible one under which agency field offices and agents in charge may approve of such enforcement actions.
The Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) has filed a brief defending the Trump administration's enforcement policy at places such as hospitals, schools, protest rallies and religious services.
FAIR takes issue with the claim that it is this change in policy, rather than Trump's change to much more vigorous enforcement of immigration laws generally, that deprives the plaintiffs of illegal alien congregants.
"ICE has an obligation to enforce the laws anywhere in the United States," says FAIR spokesman Ira Mehlman. "And for the most part, unless there is some exigent circumstance, they are not going into churches or schools."
Nevertheless, because ICE is doing its job, he says illegal aliens who are in violation of the law have understandably been more cautious about where they go.
"There should be some concern that the law is going to be enforced against them," Mehlman notes.
Still, he says immigration does not exist to provide churches with people to fill their pews.
"Churches, as we know, are in trouble here in the United States," he points out. "They're losing membership for a lot of different reasons, and they need to figure out how to draw people back who have kind of drifted away rather than relying on our immigration policies to provide them with new parishioners."
FAIR hopes the court realizes how hollow this lawsuit really is and rules against plaintiffs.
