Quakers Sue DHS over Immigration Enforcement and Religious Freedom [Updated]

Deportation officers on immigration raid, 2018. Credit: Defense Visual Information Distribution Service.

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Quakers are suing the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) over potential immigration raids at houses of worship. Plaintiffs include Philadelphia Yearly Meeting, New England Yearly Meeting, Baltimore Yearly Meeting, Adelphi (Md.) Meeting, and Richmond (Va.) Meeting. The suit argues that plaintiffs’ religious liberty is violated by the Trump administration’s January 20 rescindment of protections for people without legal status in “sensitive locations” such as places of worship.

Update 2/10/25: New England Quakers explain their participation:

New England Yearly Meeting (NEYM) Secretary Noah Merrill noted that when making the time-sensitive decision to join the lawsuit he and others at the yearly meeting level discerned based on guidelines in a 2015 minute on responding to urgent matters.

NEYM has received support from other Christians, as well as communities of Sikhs, Muslims, and Jews, according to Merrill. Across the country, monthly meetings, yearly meetings, and other Quaker entities, have endorsed the lawsuit by adopting minutes, offering to become plaintiffs, and expressing their willingness to file amicus briefs, Merrill noted.

An amicus brief is filed by entities that are not directly involved in a lawsuit but who have a compelling interest in the outcome.

The lawsuit represents Quakers’ discerned response to a difficult political situation.

“We continue to see the fruits of the Spirit arising from this action, and pray that this small step may be an encouragement—to Friends and many beyond—in these troubled times we have been given. We are grateful for Friends holding us in prayer in the coming days, weeks, and months as the lawsuit and the chaos in response to which arises continue to unfold,” Merrill said.

Original story 1/27/2025:

Since 2011, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents have been restricted from arresting, interrogating, searching, or surveilling people in such places as meetinghouses, churches, mosques, synagogues, schools, and hospitals. 

The suit states that immigration enforcement in and around houses of worship violates worshipers’ First Amendment right to freedom of religion.

“The core of the lawsuit argues that if the protections of religious exercise mean anything under the law, it must include the right of people to gather together for worship. If the government is going to impede that right, it must have a very good reason for doing so. The government has not enforced immigration law at houses of worship for at least the last 31 years, so it is difficult to see how an about-face on that policy could satisfy any meaningful level of review,” according to a statement on Philadelphia Yearly Meeting’s (PYM) website.

The councils of the yearly meeting met and easily came to unity about becoming plaintiffs of the suit, according to PYM general secretary Christie Duncan-Tessmer. Immediately prior to the suit being filed the clerks of monthly and quarterly meetings gathered to hear the news and were also supportive and excited.

“Everything just moved lightning fast. By Quaker standards, it was breathtaking,” said Duncan-Tessmer.

Representatives from PYM, Baltimore Yearly Meeting, and New England Yearly Meeting worked with lawyers from Democracy Forward, the nonprofit legal group that filed the suit, in the middle of last week, according to Duncan-Tessmer. The suit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland on January 27. 

Friends’ historic experience of religious persecution motivated modern Quakers to join the lawsuit, according to Duncan-Tessmer. William Penn protected freedom of religion in the Charter of Privileges. The framers of the Constitution drew on this tradition to enshrine religious liberty in the First Amendment, she explained. The First Amendment was ratified in 1791. The Constitution was ratified between 1787 and 1789.

“That’s why we have freedom of religion in this country because of Quakers,” Duncan-Tessmer said.

Protections for individuals without legal status at sensitive locations included exceptions for cases involving national security hazards, terrorism, and imminent threats of death or violence, according to DHS.

“U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement does not comment on ongoing litigation,” said an ICE spokesperson.


Correction: The process of PYM’s decision making and work with other yearly meetings and Democracy Forward has been clarified. We have also added a response from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

This is a developing story, originally published January 27, 2025. Please check frequently for updates.

Sharlee DiMenichi

Sharlee DiMenichi is a staff writer for Friends Journal.

7 thoughts on “Quakers Sue DHS over Immigration Enforcement and Religious Freedom [Updated]

  1. I admire and respect Quakers
    I am Jewish and if I was to become Christian it would be with friends society .

    Many people are not familiar with Treaty of Tripoli Article 11 ratified by president Adams and congress ” America is not a Christian country”.
    And Evangelical Christian churches white nationalists force their New testament upon us and others .
    The new testament curses us Jews and Torah laws.
    Centuries of pogroms inquisitions forced conversions expulsions burning alive Jews heretics holocaust in Christian Europe and Russia.

    These fact of history are glossed over and ignored .

    How do the Quakers view the antisemitic passages in your new testament?
    Which of the hundreds of variant versions of the Christian bibles do Quakers rely on?
    תודה רבה שלום 👍Peace out .

    1. James,

      There are Quaker-Jews (and Quaker-Unitarians and many other combinations), so you should be welcomed as fully equal.

      The New Testament was written over 2,000 years ago with plenty of outdated biases (slavery, minorities, women, children, etc.), yet the core of what Jesus said is love God and neighbor, and share God’s equal infinite love of all of us.

      While Jews tormented early Christians, the proper Christian response is to love and forgive. Unfortunately, our human instinct for demonizing others and revenge gets in the way of what Jesus asked us to do to reflect God’s equal infinite love for all of us. Without prioritizing forgiveness (as a form of love) we see religions in the Middle East falling prey to our base human instinct and spiraling down in an endless cycle of vengeful violence, as force consistently fails in the long run. An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.

      Jesus shared with us the solution…individual love and forgiveness are the only sustainable way to achieve social peace and justice.

    2. I, too, am of Jewish descent (and practice, until a couple of years ago) and have joined my Abington Meeting where no creed, Christian or otherwise, is required. And I am thoroughly enjoying my new religious life of prioritizing the “light” and love in every person, while trying to live a life that prioritizes simplicity, peace, integrity, equity, sustainability, and plain and constant attempts to be the best person I can be. Quakerism springs from Christianity, more as a reaction to it than an adherence to it. We preach from no “testaments,” old or new, and strive to find and share the beauty and pain of this life in as constructive and spiritual way as possible. In Friendship,

  2. DHS should specify “credible” imminent threats of death or violence, as teen pranks and online ranting without any credible means to act, or any tangible action, could be easily be abused by government. When search warrants are requested, there must be a public defender present with the judge and prosecutor to represent the defendant, as well as the church. Also important to limit any exceptions for search warrants to violent felons or felony, not non-violent felon or violent misdemeanor, and certainly not for non-violent misdemeanor or petty offense.

  3. Hi James,
    Quakers see that of God in everyone (or at least try very hard) and endeavor to discern what is right or wrong on an ongoing basis.
    While they started out as a group of protestants during the reformation, they ere considered rebels. They do not follow a doctrine or script or rules imposed from the top down, but rather seek to find divine inspiration and clarity in a multitude of sources: spiritual writings (including bibles), different faiths, philosophical texts, messages given in Meeting, what your neighbor said last night or what you saw on the subway this morning or a what a bird told you during a walk in the park. LISTENING with your heart is essential! It is an experiential faith, grounded in life, not words, and we can always learn and develop further.

    Individual Meetings can differ substantially; some Meetings are more Christ-centered, others more universal, many are very small, others bigger, some rural, others urban. The Meeting I belong to (Brooklyn Monthly Meeting) is rather large (about 100 – 130 people present on a given Sunday). It is considered rather liberal and also contains quite an array of people coming from other faith traditions – including Jewish – who somehow manage to find the common elements that they feel make up the essence of a spiritual life for them.
    Of late, our Meeting is also experiencing an astonishing influx of young people who are in search of openness and honesty and a hope for the future by striving for peace and acceptance within a supportive and loving community. I am not saying this to brag (we are very human and therefore also very fallible), but to explain that the written word is not the be-all and end-all for us and that everyone needs to find their own way to seek and create peace and love.
    It’s not about the differences between us humans – it’s about realizing that we are all creations of the same force and have the monumental task of sharing this planet in peaceful ways. A never-ending labor of love!
    But I’m sure, other Quakers can give you somewhat differring answers…

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