World Relief Troubled by Rumors that Trump Administration Will Rescind Guidance Limiting Immigration Enforcement Activities in Churches and other “Sensitive Locations”

Contact: wr@pinkston.co

(Baltimore, MD) December 16, 2024 – World Relief is deeply troubled by recent reporting that the Trump administration is considering revoking guidance that limits the circumstances under which Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE) would carry out immigration enforcement activities in churches, schools, hospitals and other “sensitive locations.”

Under existing, longstanding guidance, ICE agents generally carry out arrests in these sensitive locations only with supervisor authorization out of respect for religious freedom, public health and child welfare concerns. 

“While we respect the government’s authority – and affirm the existing exceptions to this general rule when there are public safety concerns – we believe that these ‘sensitive locations’ guidelines are a prudent policy and should not be abandoned,” said World Relief president and CEO Myal Greene. “President Trump wisely kept this policy in place throughout his first term, and we hope that reports his administration will abandon the policy in his second term are inaccurate.”

Greene continued, “Without such a policy, families – including many US citizens living in mixed-status families – will receive the message that they are putting themselves and their loved ones at risk by participating in their churches, by attending or picking their kids up from school or by going to the hospital, even in a genuine emergency where a decision to stay away could be fatal.”

“The government has an important job to do, and it can and should carry out immigration enforcement in other venues, particularly with a focus on those who present a public safety concern, but they should not inhibit the exercise of religion by scaring people from attending houses of worship,” said Matthew Soerens, Vice President of Advocacy and Policy at World Relief. “Doing so ultimately will lead to fewer people attending church services and thus fewer people encountering the hope of the gospel.”
World Relief has joined other evangelical Christians in underscoring the fact that evangelicals oppose dehumanizing rhetoric toward immigrants and oppose policies that would separate families. Recent research shows they overwhelmingly support potential immigration legislation that respects the God-given dignity of every person, protects the unity of the immediate family, and guarantees secure national borders.