Keep ICE out of our churches

ICE agents are sitting in on trainings, joining community meetings, and recording the license plates of parishioners' cars -- despite a federal court order barring enforcement in and around those very churches.

At the same time, ICE has detained faith leaders who are legally present in the United States on religious worker visas, including a Texas pastor and his wife taken into custody on their way to their own marriage retreat.

Churches and schools have been treated as sanctuary spaces for generations -- places where people can worship, learn, and seek help without fear of surveillance or arrest.

An administration that invokes "Christian nation" language to justify its immigration crackdown cannot simultaneously treat Christian congregations as intelligence targets.

WE WILL NOT BE SILENCED.

We call on DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin to immediately cease this surveillance of sanctuary spaces and comply with the federal court order barring enforcement at churches.

Petition Text:

To: DHS Secretary Mullin

Dear Secretary Mullin,

As a person of faith, I am writing to demand that the Department of Homeland Security immediately end the surveillance of houses of worship and stop treating churches and schools as intelligence targets.

Court filings show that DHS agents infiltrated at least five churches in Minnesota and Michigan -- attending trainings and community meetings undercover and recording the license plates of parishioners' cars -- and that this surveillance continued even after a federal judge ordered the agency to stop.

That is a direct violation of a court order, not an oversight.

At the same time, ICE has detained pastors who are legally present in this country on religious worker visas, including a Texas couple taken into custody on their way to their own marriage retreat and threatened with separation from their three children.

You cannot claim to defend a "Christian nation" while sending undercover agents to spy on Christians in their own sanctuaries.

Churches and schools have been treated as safe spaces for generations, across faith traditions and political lines, and that tradition should not end on your watch.

I am asking the Department of Homeland Security to immediately halt all surveillance and enforcement activity in and around houses of worship and schools, and to fully comply with the February court order barring warrantless enforcement at the churches named in the pending litigation.

Sanctuary is not a loophole. It is a sacred trust, and thousands of people of faith are watching to see whether you honor it.