Federal judge refuses to block immigration enforcement operations in houses of worship

By LINDSAY WHITEHURST and MICHAEL KUNZELMAN WASHINGTON AP A federal judge on Friday refused to block immigration agents from conducting enforcement operations at houses of worship in a lawsuit filed by religious groups over a new procedures adopted by the Trump administration Related Articles Trump wants Congress to end the changing of clocks and keep the country on daylight saving time Schools lined up for help getting cleaner school buses Then came the EPA freeze Iowa Republican Gov Kim Reynolds announces she won t seek reelection in The House speaker s eyeing big cuts to Medicaid In his Louisiana district it s a lifeline Trump administration to refer Maine to Justice Department over transgender participation in sports U S District Judge Dabney Friedrich in Washington handed down the ruling in a lawsuit filed by more than two dozen Christian and Jewish groups representing millions of Americans The judge unveiled that there have been only a handful of such enforcement actions and the faiths had not shown the kind of legal harm that would justify a preliminary injunction At least at this juncture and on this record the plaintiffs have not made the requisite showing of a credible threat of enforcement wrote Friedrich who was appointed by President Donald Trump during his first term Nor does the present record show that places of worship are being singled out as special targets On Jan his first day back in office Trump s Republican administration rescinded a Department of Homeland Precaution approach limiting where migrant arrests could happen Its new initiative declared field agents using common sense and discretion can conduct immigration enforcement operations at houses of worship without a supervisor s approval Plaintiffs attorneys claimed the new Homeland Prevention directive departs from the regime s -year-old protocol against staging immigration enforcement operations in protected areas or sensitive locations In February a federal judge in Maryland ruled against the Trump administration in a similar affair brought by a coalition of Quakers and other religious groups U S District Judge Theodore Chang s order in that circumstance was limited to those plaintiffs A judge in Colorado sided with the administration in another lawsuit over the reversal of a similar plan that had limited immigration arrests at schools