Policy of immigration enforcement treating churches as ‘sensitive areas’ could endThe incoming presidential administration reportedly plans to end a long-standing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) policy requiring ICE agents to seek their superior’s approval before arresting people at “sensitive locations” such as churches, hospitals, or schools.
A Dec. 11 NBC News story, citing three unnamed sources, reported that President-elect Donald Trump plans to rescind the policy, which has been in place since 2011 and was expanded in late 2021 under the Biden administration, possibly as soon as his first day in office.
Trump has frequently touted a planned program of mass deportations of illegal immigrants, a plan that bishops and other Catholic leaders have criticized as inhumane.
The “sensitive locations” policy began in 2011 with a memo from then-ICE director John Morton, which precludes ICE agents from carrying out immigration enforcement actions in locations like hospitals, places of worship, schools, or during events such as weddings or parades unless there is an urgent need, such as a person who poses an imminent threat, or if the agents have sought higher approval to do so.
The prospective new policy follows a recommendation in the influential document “Mandate for Leadership 2025: The Conservative Promise,” also known as Project 2025, in a section overseen by Ken Cuccinelli, a Catholic and former U.S. Department of Homeland Security official in Trump’s first administration.
The document calls for the elimination of policies that prohibit ICE personnel from operating in “sensitive locations,” arguing instead that the agency should rely on “the good judgment of officers in the field to avoid inappropriate situations.”..............
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/261015/report-policy-of-immigration-enforcement-treating-churches-and-schools-as-sensitive-areas-could-end
