At a mosque in the Bronx, African immigrants who had been regulars have stopped attending prayer services. At a church just outside Boston, where most congregants are of Haitian descent, roughly two-thirds of parishioners have vanished. At multiple Baptist congregations in the South, pastors are considering locking church doors once services begin.
Their common fear: that immigration agents will bust in and arrest congregants mid-prayer.
That’s because President Donald Trump recently gave Immigration and Customs Enforcement the go-ahead to conduct raids at houses of worship. That directive is now the target of two major lawsuits, the second of which was filed Tuesday morning. Plaintiffs in the suits include dozens of faith groups, from Pentecostals to Sikhs to Quakers to Jews, who believe the Trump administration is trampling their religious freedom.
