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Washington — A federal appeals court on Tuesday continued to block a Department of Homeland Security policy allowing immigration officers to conduct enforcement actions at certain houses of worship for Quakers, Cooperative Baptists and Sikhs.
A unanimous panel of three judges from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit left in place a district court’s preliminary injunction while the case continues. That order, issued last year, barred the Trump administration from applying its 2025 policy to the plaintiffs in the case: houses of worship from the Quaker, Sikh, and Cooperative Baptist Fellowship religious traditions.
In a decision written by Judge Barbara Milano Keenan, the 4th Circuit panel ruled that the houses of worship showed that the Department of Homeland Security’s policy substantially burdens the free exercise of their religion.
The new guidance, she wrote, “is having a chilling effect on their congregations and already has caused declines in attendance among members of [Cooperative Baptist Fellowship] and the Sikh Plaintiffs.” That drop in attendance and the increased threat of immigration enforcement at the plaintiffs’ houses of worship “already has imposed a substantial burden on the ability of all the plaintiffs to express their religion through communal worship,” Keenan wrote.
She was joined by Judges G. Steven Agee and Pamela Harris. Keenan and Harris were appointed to the 4th Circuit by President Barack Obama, and Agee was named by President George W. Bush.
The dispute dates back to the first days of President Trump’s second administration, when DHS rolled back a policy issued under the Biden administration that barred immigration enforcement actions at or near protected areas like places of worship, schools or hospitals.
Under a new policy, the Trump administration said immigration officers should use their discretion and a “healthy dose of common sense” when deciding whether to conduct immigration enforcement actions in those sensitive locations.
The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, which serves roughly 750,000 Baptists; the Gurdwara Sahib West Sacramento, serving 30,000 Sikhs; and six Quaker Meetings filed their lawsuit challenging the new policy allowing immigration arrests at houses of worship last year. They alleged it violates the Religious Freedom Restoration Act and the First Amendment.
They argued that the new policy chilled immigrants’ attendance at their services and other ministries and led to a decline in attendance.
In its decision in favor of the houses of worship, Keenan cited a DHS statement from January 2025, in which a department spokesperson said that under the new policy, “criminals will no longer be able to hide in America’s schools and churches to avoid arrest.”
“For the plaintiffs, who welcome immigrant worshipers and have locations in or near immigrant communities, DHS’s statement emphasizing the rationale for this policy change shows that the threat of immigration enforcement at their houses of worship is real and substantial,” she wrote. “The evidence showed that this increased threat of immigration enforcement at the plaintiffs’ houses of worship has resulted in substantial pressure on the plaintiffs to violate numerous beliefs.”
The plaintiffs cheered the decision and vowed to continue working to protect religious freedom.
“This decision reaffirms a fundamental promise of religious liberty: every person should be able to gather, worship, pray, and serve their community without fear that immigration enforcement will unlawfully disrupt sacred spaces,” the coalition said in a statement.