URGENT ALERT: DHS Immigration Raids on Places of Worship Starting Thanksgiving
This story is just barely breaking nationally, so we are sending an urgent alert to all our listservs.
Please forward this message on to:
Media contacts
Spanish-speaking congregations
Mosques
Liberal synagogues
Local congregation leaders
Denominational leaders
On 11/17/2025, journalist John Keough broke an exclusive story in This Week in Worcester (MA), “Exclusive: Trump DHS Plans Immigration Raids on Churches Over Holidays.”
Journalist John Keough is a Christian and lay leader at Iglesia Casa de Oracion in Worcester, MA. He wrote this story to warn churches, because it is personal to him.
Here are the main points:
This is a nation-wide, comprehensive plan to target Spanish-speaking churches during the upcoming holiday season between Thanksgiving, next Thursday, 11/27/2025 and Christmas, 12/25/2025
This plan has been updated to include: mosques and liberal synagogues
US Department of Justice attorneys received briefings on this plan and there have been internal legal discussions surrounding arrests at churches for the past three months
Multiple versions of the plan are being reviewed by DOJ staff lawyers
Trump administration is seeking faith-based public support:
The administration is pushing high-ranking Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) officials for public support of the plan, including Hispanic pastors.
Two Hispanic pastors who lead Southern Baptist churches in New England say that SBC President Clint Pressley and its executive board received briefings on the plan and discussed it with Homeland Security Advisor Stephen Miller and White House Border Czar Tom Homan.
An SBC representative says neither Pressley nor its executive committee received any briefing on the plan.
A Hispanic pastor who leads a Pentecostal denomination in New England told This Week in Worcester that ICE agents visited his church several times and another visit came from an individual who identified themselves as an FBI agent. In all three conversations, agents asked questions about the names of specific congregation members, their home addresses, and the frequency they attended church services.
Multiple prominent Protestant leaders say that two pastors close to Trump have given their approval of the plan. The first, Paula White-Cain, is a televangelist, long-time spiritual advisor to Trump and leader of the White House Faith Office. The other, televangelist Mark Burns, was an early supporter of Trump in 2016 and a board member of Pastors for Trump in 2023. Burns is also co-founder of the NOW Television Network.
The Trump administration has not approached Franklin Graham, a prominent Evangelical minister. Graham is the son of Billy Graham and president and CEO of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (DGEA) and Samaritan's Purse, a humanitarian organization that does missionary work. Graham has advised Trump on several public policies, and has led several prayer campaigns for Trump. Several people close to Graham say it would be highly unlikely that he would support such a plan.
Attendees practice patrol duties during an immigration training session at Amity Presbyterian Church in Charlotte, N.C. (Photo by the Rev. Megan Argabrite)
Action Steps:
The first priority is to get the word out to everyone you can, especially those at most risk. Share this message, print out the article and go door-to-door to Spanish-speaking churches, mosques, and liberal synagogues.
Here are important resources for knowing your rights in places of worship
Reach out to Spanish-speaking churches, mosques, and liberal synagogues and ask them what kind of support they would like. Share some ideas, we came up with some below.
Congregations, especially predominantly white congregations, here are some ideas of how you might support and offer protection to the congregations of your local Spanish-speaking churches, mosques, and liberal synagogues—ask them what is most supportive:
Go worship at their place, worship with them, worship in their parking lot, be a hedge of protection (Job 1:8-11)
Invite other congregations to worship, hold Bible study, fellowship, etc, and hold their regular events for free in your building
Swap buildings for the next 5 weeks
Reach out to your elected representatives:
“Hello Representative/Senator [ ], my name is [ ] and I am a constituent of yours in zip code [ ]. I am a person of faith and am horrified by the news that the Trump Administration is preparing to raid places of worship during the holiday season. If you haven’t heard about this, you can read more about it here: Exclusive: Trump DHS Plans Immigration Raids on Churches Over Holidays. Churches, synagogues, mosques, and all places of worship must be free from federal raids in order to allow every person in this country to practice their First Amendment right of freedom of religion. I implore you to use your federal oversight role to limit ICE and CBP from infringing on our rights.”
Get loud about this now, before it happens, and shut it down early: Public statements, social media, letters to the editor, reach out to your local news to see if they will come interview you for a statement.
Develop plans for moving vulnerable people to private/lockable spaces within your place of worship at the first signs of immigration enforcement activity.
Connect with the Rapid Response Networks in your community.
Congregational Guidance from the national United Church of Christ about ICE at Churches
Local Churches concerned about ICE showing up at their church to conduct an immigration enforcement action should make a plan NOW. The plan should include training workers/volunteers who are likely to be at the church, and analyzing the church’s private and public areas, as ICE cannot go into the private areas of a church without a judicial warrant. Local Churches should hire a local immigrant advocacy group to train workers and volunteers on how to respond to ICE. If your church is not aware of any such organization, start with your local ACLU for help. Also, identify and consult with an immigration attorney who can be called by church workers or volunteers if ICE shows up. Be sure the attorney’s number is known to church workers and volunteers.
ICE must have a judicial warrant to enter private spaces of a church. You may ask to see the warrant before allowing ICE in. A judicial warrant is issued by a court and signed by a judge and describes the location than can be entered with the warrant. It is different from administrative warrants that may be issued by ICE or another federal agency with the name of an individual to be arrested. Your church can refuse to allow ICE access to private areas of the church without a judicial warrant. Whether an area of a church is public or private is going to depend on how that area of the church is used and whether the church has a reasonable expectation of privacy in that area. A church lobby is likely public; a church office that cannot be entered without a church employee may be private. It will differ from church to church. While putting “private” signs on private spaces is a good idea to inform others these are private spaces, marking an otherwise public area with a “private” sign is not going to transform the area from public to private when ICE shows up.
No one at your church is required to talk to ICE, give ICE agents any information, or say anything about anyone’s immigration status. You should call your church’s immigration attorney before speaking with ICE.” (UCC)
The Trump Administration has been testing and working up to this
ICE, FBI, and DHS agents have been testing the waters by entering and detaining people on church property and parking lots. This is not normal. It is not normal for armed agents to enter church property or other places of worship. There is a long history of the separation of Church and State, and Sanctuary in which congregations are safe places for the community. Threats to places of worship threaten everyone’s right of religious freedom and their right to worship freely in community with others. We protect places of worship so that we can protect our First Amendment Constitutional rights.
A Latine church in East Charlotte, NC: Masked federal agents parked just outside a closed gate leading to the church parking lot and ran into the church yard, grabbed one church member whose wife and child were inside the church and ICE agents attempted to grab others too. This occurred while 15-20 church members were doing yard work on church property while their children played games and spouses cooked meals. (Charlotte Observer, November 17, 2025)
Downey Memorial Christian Church, Downey, CA: ICE agents entered the church parking lot to take a man walking through the church’s property. Agents were armed, masked, and aggressive. They tried to intimidate clergy and staff. (USA Today, July 15, 2025)
St. Adelaide Parish in Highland and Our Lady of Lourdes in Montclair, CA: ICE agents entered two Catholic parish properties and detained multiple people in the parking lot of St. Adelaide Church. (Vatican News, June 23, 2025)
Parkview UCC, Aurora, CO: Armed federal agents used a UCC church parking lot as a staging ground for a non-ICE-related raid without permission and while no staff or church members were on site (First hand knowledge, May 27, 2025)
North Carolina Governor Josh Stein says ICE agents have been entering churches in Charlotte: Click here to watch the full video on Instagram. (11/16/2025)
This is not just a Constitutional crisis, it is a crisis of faith for all people of faith.
“Do not mistreat the foreigners who reside in your land. The foreigner who lives among you must be treated like one of your own. Love them as you love yourself, for you too were a foreigner in the land of Egypt. I am YHWH.” Leviticus 19:33-34, The Inclusive Bible
“My children, our love must not be simply words or mere talk—it must be true love, which shows itself in action and truth. This, then, is how we’ll know we belong to the truth; this is how we’ll be confident in God’s presence, even if our consciences condemn us.” 1 John 3:18-19a, The Inclusive Bible
“Whoever migrates in the way of Allah will find in the earth enough room for refuge and plentiful resources.” Qu’ran 4:100
