Baltimore Yearly Meeting, Philadelphia Yearly Meeting, New England Yearly Meeting and two BYM monthly meetings- Adelphi and Richmond – filed a lawsuit on January 27, 2025 against the Department of Homeland Security. The lawsuit challenges the Department’s rescission of a decades-old policy to not conduct immigration enforcement at  “sensitive locations,” which include schools, hospitals, houses of worship, and public religious ceremonies like weddings and funerals. The new policy allows government agents to conduct enforcement operations in those locations. As a result, people of various faiths will avoid going to their houses of worship for fear of government enforcement. This hurts immigrants who will stay home. And it hurts the houses of worship and the other members who lose the ability to worship with others, including a number of our monthly meetings with ties to immigrants of different kinds.

Learn more about the suit in the complaint filing or this Friends Journal article.