On Jan. 21, the Department of Homeland Security issued a statement canceling a President Joe Biden-era policy that prevented U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents from conducting raids in “protected areas” like churches and schools.
Religious organizations nationwide have filed a lawsuit arguing that this directive impacts their religious freedom. The Wisconsin Council of Churches (WCOC), a statewide network of churches and other faith-based organizations representing 23 Christian traditions, is a party to the suit.
Rev. Breanna Illéné, director of Ecumenical Innovation and Justice Initiatives at WCOC, said the directive goes against the mission of churches.
“We need our churches to be able to continue to provide the care their communities need and if they aren’t safe spaces because people fear being picked up by ICE, they are unable to fulfill their mission and people’s right to worship freely is being violated,” Illéné told The Daily Cardinal in an email.
Undocumented immigrants often rely on faith-based organizations for access to food banks, social networks and mental health services due to the perception that these are trustworthy institutions, according to the Stanford Social Innovation Review. The same article found that this perception was especially true for Latino immigrants under President Donald Trump’s first administration.
Some organizations will cautiously comply with the order in lieu of a direct legal challenge. The Catholic Multicultural Center (CMC), a Madison-based organization that provides charitable resources to the community from a doctrine of Catholic social teaching, has said that they will only comply with the parts that allow ICE to enter public spaces.
“[ICE] would be allowed into the public areas of the CMC (parking lot, lobby and reception area) and asked if they required assistance,” Steve Maurice, director of the Catholic Multicultural Center, told the Cardinal. “All other areas of the building (classrooms, offices, chapel, program spaces) are designated as private areas and ICE agents would need to show a judicial warrant with specific information to be allowed into those areas.”
Churches remain undeterred in offering social services
Despite the looming pressure of this order, faith-based organizations still plan on offering services to undocumented immigrants in their communities.
In an interview with WPR, Lutheran bishop Anne Edison-Albright has said that her church, a member of WCOC, will work to keep providing ministry for vulnerable members of society in light of the immigration order.
In Madison, the CMC has worked with other local organizations to make immigrants in their communities aware of their legal rights in the U.S., Maurice said. The CMC is also continuing to offer ESL classes, employment assistance and immigration legal services for low or no income recipients.
Immigrants who receive legal counsel at little or no cost will often have greater understanding of their rights and better chances of winning the right to remain in the U.S., according to the New School’s Institute on Race, Power and Political Economy.
“The CMC will continue to serve our immigrant neighbors through our basic needs, education, legal and employment related programs, and we will do our best to meet needs as they arise,” Maurice said.
Wisconsin churches have historical significance to immigrants
Wisconsin churches have a long history of offering services to undocumented migrants due to their pivotal role in the Sanctuary Movement of the 1980s.
In 1982, three Catholic churches in Milwaukee opened their doors to Central American refugees escaping violence in El Salvador and Guatemala, becoming the first Catholic churches in the Sanctuary Movement and inspiring similar amnesty programs throughout the Midwest. The following year, St. Francis House Episcopal Church in Madison became the first Episcopal church in the country to offer sanctuary for Central Americans.
In 1985, Democratic Gov. Tony Earl declared Wisconsin a “state of sanctuary” for Salvadoran and Guatemalan refugees in an act that did not bar immigration officials from entering churches but still carried symbolic weight.
Giving shelter to immigrants who have been displaced by violence is viewed by some faith-based organizations as an essential service they provide.
“Many [immigrants] have homelands that are economically unstable, torn by violence or ravaged by war,” Maurice said. “In a country composed of immigrants, the demonization and scapegoating of newcomers has been repeated throughout our history, but justice and the common good is best served when we recognize the difference between a threat and an opportunity.”
Groups challenging the immigration order also cited the history of Christianity and Christian moral teaching.
“Christians across time have been migrants and have also been the people welcoming migrants,” Illéné said. “Our faith calls us to welcome the stranger and love our neighbors, this includes those who are crossing borders and are new in our communities.”
Latin organization supports churches, condemns Trump administration’s decision
Voces de la Frontera, a nonprofit organization advocating for increased civil and worker’s rights in Wisconsin’s Latino community, has called the recent move to allow ICE into churches as an attack on immigrants.
“Voces de la Frontera condemns any policy that allows ICE and law enforcement agents to enter schools, medical centers, and houses of worship to arrest immigrants,” communications director Alexandra Guevara told the Cardinal. “Such orders not only sow confusion and fear, but they also undermine the vital role that places of worship have long played as sanctuaries for immigrants in need of safety and community.”
Marquette University history professor Sergio González has stressed in an interview with Wisconsin Public Radio that during the Sanctuary Movement, churches in Wisconsin acted to shelter immigrants without federal government approval in moves that transcended religious, racial and even national boundaries. These actions tie into a greater ethic of human rights that Voces de la Frontera wishes for churches to uphold, Guevara said.
“[The churches’ legal actions] not only defend their right to provide sanctuary but also uphold the principles of religious freedom, human rights and decency,” Guevara said.
