Church of the Brethren general secretary’s declaration filed alongside dozens of others in motion for preliminary injunction of policy on sensitive sites

Here is an update on the lawsuit filed on Feb. 11, 2025, on behalf of the Church of the Brethren and more than two dozen other Christian and Jewish religious denominations and associations, in response to the Trump Administration’s rescission of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) “sensitive locations” policy that had restricted Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) from conducting immigration raids, arrests, and other enforcement actions at houses of worship.

The case, titled Mennonite Church USA et al. v. United States Department of Homeland Security et al., was filed in federal district court in Washington, D.C. (See the Newsline report at www.brethren.org/news/2025/suit-to-protect-religious-freedoms.)

On Feb. 21, the plaintiffs in the suit filed a motion for a preliminary injunction seeking to enjoin DHS’s new policy on sensitive sites. The motion was supported by declarations from the plaintiffs, including a declaration by David Steele, general secretary of the Church of the Brethren (see his declaration below, identifying information for congregations has been removed for their protection).

In addition to the declarations by the leaders of the Christian and Jewish denominations and organizations named as plaintiffs in the suit, pastors from individual congregations including two Church of the Brethren congregations also filed supporting declarations. Those declarations were filed under pseudonyms to protect their individual congregations from being targeted. In all, 66 declarations were filed from plaintiffs’ representatives, congregational leaders, and members.

The court has set a hearing on the plaintiffs’ motion for a preliminary injunction for April 4 at 10 a.m. (Eastern time).

In a separate but similar lawsuit filed by six Quaker meetings along with the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship and the Sikh Temple of Sacramento, the US District Court in Maryland granted the motion for a preliminary injunction on Feb. 24. Religion News Service reported that this injunction “only applies to the plaintiffs’ houses of worship, not all houses of worship nationwide.” RNS said that “in their complaint, Quakers noted their commitments to peace and nonviolence and wrote that the threat of armed immigration officers entering their spaces would impact all members’ ability to exercise their faith.” (Read the full article at https://religionnews.com/2025/02/25/faith-groups-claim-legal-victories-on-refugees-ice-raids-at-houses-of-worship.)

Following is the “Declaration of David Steele, General Secretary of Plaintiff Church of the Brethren” in the case Mennonite Church USA et al. v. United States Department of Homeland Security et al. (identifying information for congregations has been removed for their protection):

I am the General Secretary of the Church of the Brethren, and I have served in that role since 2016.
I make this statement based upon personal knowledge, files, and documents of the Church of the Brethren that I have reviewed, as well as information supplied to me by pastors, district executives, staff, and other members of the Church of the Brethren, whom I believe to be reliable. These files, documents, and information are of a type that is generated in the ordinary course of our business and that I would customarily rely upon in conducting the Church of the Brethren’s business.
The Church of the Brethren traces its roots back more than 300 years to Germany when, in 1708, a group of individuals influenced by Pietism and Anabaptism broke away from the state churches to form their own religious group seeking to follow a different kind of life based on peaceful and compassionate action. Due to persecution and economic hardship, its members migrated to North America and organized the first congregation in 1723 in Germantown, Pennsylvania. Currently, the Church of the Brethren has approximately 75,185 members in 782 congregations within 23 districts. We are headquartered in Elgin, Illinois.
The Church of the Brethren is considered a historic peace church and has continually prioritized loving enemies, welcoming the stranger, and acting in ways that promote the wellbeing of all and help those in need or who have been marginalized. Our founders, who began the Brethren movement in central Germany in 1708, faced persecution in Europe and migrated to Pennsylvania, becoming German-speaking immigrants in the English-speaking American colonies. That foundational history enhances our compassion for and welcome to immigrants who face similar circumstances in the United States today, and who similarly rely on the welcome and aid of others. The Church of the Brethren welcomes all including undocumented people into our churches for worship services, social service ministries, and other church activities. Our denominational tagline — “Continuing the work of Jesus: Peacefully. Simply. Together.” — expresses the fundamentals of our Christian tradition.
Our faith is founded on and rooted in the community of the church, to which all are welcome in the name of Christ, the Prince of Peace. Our faith also has a discipleship emphasis on serving others in the name of Jesus Christ. Our holy scriptures speak of this welcome and service, which God instructs us all to carry out. As Jesus said in Matthew 10:40, “Whoever welcomes you welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me.” Similarly, he reminds us Matthew 25:35, “For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me.” The biblical book of James, in the New Testament, has been a touchstone for our faith tradition and has helped the Church of the Brethren’s focus on doing the works of faith, without which our faith is no faith at all: “What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but does not have works? Surely that faith cannot save, can it? If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food and one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill,’ and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that? So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead” (James 2:14-17).
Our faith tradition has a primary focus on the life and teachings of Jesus, but relies on the New Testament as our guide for faith and practice and has turned to the early church as a model. The New Testament letters of the Apostle Paul help us to understand that we in the church of Jesus Christ are intrinsically connected with each other through our faith in Jesus and the bond of the Holy Spirit. What happens to one of us, happens to all of us, and we are called in Christ to share each other’s joys and bear each other’s burdens. “We, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually we are members one of another,” writes the Apostle Paul in Romans 12:5. “For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ,” he writes in 1 Corinthians 12:12-13, “for in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.” In this context, any threat or harm to one of our members represents a threat or a harm to all of us in the church.
In light of the Department of Homeland Security (“DHS”)’s rescission of the sensitive locations policy and its plan to arrest and deport all undocumented people during President Trump’s second term, I have strong reason to believe that our congregations are at imminent risk of an immigration enforcement action.
The Church of the Brethren has congregations across the country, including in regions with significant numbers of Hispanic and/or Haitian migrant congregants…. These congregations are located in communities where Immigration and Customs Enforcement (“ICE”) has conducted raids and enforcement actions over the past few weeks.
Our congregations also serve many immigrant members, with a variety of different immigration statuses: some have permanent legal status, some risk deportation because they are undocumented, and some have more temporary status like parole or Temporary Protected Status (“TPS”), which may soon expire. For example, one congregation…has a membership that is a mix of U.S. citizens, permanent residents, DACA holders, and undocumented individuals. One of our congregations…has members who are on parole. A congregation…has members whose TPS status is scheduled to expire soon.
Many of our congregations across the country also provide social service ministries on their church campuses that serve both documented and undocumented immigrants, such as food distributions, food pantries, soup kitchens, weekly meals, and other ministries that include offering food and educational supplies and other aid to children and families. In just one example, one mostly Hispanic congregation…runs a food distribution program that serves many immigrant families in the community.
An enforcement action during a worship service, religious ceremony, or other church activity will harm Church of the Brethren congregations by interfering with their ability to worship in person together as congregations, with all members of their community, including those who are immigrants and without lawful status. It will substantially disrupt our spiritual practices and destroy all sense of peace and safety in what is supposed to be a place of sanctuary for congregants and neighbors. Likewise, an enforcement action directed at our congregations’ social service ministries will prevent them from carrying out our mission to welcome and serve all immigrants, to whom we feel called to minister to as part of our evangelical faith and who we are called to protect as some of the most vulnerable in our society.
DHS’s new enforcement policy is already substantially burdening the Church of the Brethren’s religious exercise. Since the sensitive locations policy was rescinded, our staff, district executives, and I have talked with pastors at Church of the Brethren congregations who are confused and afraid. They want to know how to protect their churches from intrusion and interruption. Congregations with significant numbers of immigrants have already reported a decrease in worship attendance in the last few weeks, with congregants conveying that they are now afraid of going to church due to the imminent risk of an enforcement action. Some examples of this decline in worship attendance are listed below:

a. One largely Hispanic congregation…has reported a decrease in attendance at its weekly worship services from approximately 140 to 90 individuals. The members include a significant number who are undocumented, some of whom have resided in the United States for years.

b. At a Spanish-speaking congregation…attendance at worship services has dropped by 25 to 40 percent since mid-January because their members are afraid that ICE or Customs and Border Patrol (“CBP”) might enter the church or be waiting for people outside.

c. Another Spanish-speaking congregation…has seen attendance at its worship services fall by half as word spread that ICE and CBP has become active in the area and that churches are no longer considered off limits to immigration authorities. The congregation is a mix of citizens, permanent residents, citizen children, and undocumented people. Even many documented congregants are concerned and deterred from attending services because they all look like they are from Mexico or Central America, and proving status can be difficult.

d. Another congregation…with a substantial number of Hispanic congregants reported that its attendance was down by 30 percent as people are fearful of coming to church because they might be detained. The church is a mix of U.S. citizens (both adults and children) and undocumented people, some of whom have been in the U.S. for a very long time. The fear of ICE activity in the area is real because already one member was wrongfully detained.

e. Another congregation with a large Hispanic immigrant membership…reported a decline in attendance at its worship services from approximately 115 people down to 70.

f. A congregation…with a large Haitian membership reported that attendance at its Sunday worship services has declined from an average of approximately 370 to 270 individuals.

g. Another congregation…with a large Haitian membership reports that attendance is down 50 percent due to the fear of an ICE enforcement action at or near the church.

In addition to the decrease in worship attendance, DHS’s change in its sensitive locations policy has also impacted the social service ministries of the Church of the Brethren, which are an exercise of our faith and belief that we serve our God by serving our neighbors in need. Congregations providing services such as food distributions, food pantries, soup kitchens, weekly meals, and other ministries to children and families, have reported a decline in attendance and participation. Some examples of this decline in participation in social services are below:

a. One urban congregation…has faithfully served its neighbors…by providing a hot, nourishing meal at no cost to approximately 65 to 80 guests. Many of the guests are immigrants. Since the change in DHS policy, the meal ministry has experienced a drop in attendance from guests who may be undocumented and fear ICE presence at the program.

b. A congregation…with a large number of Hispanic immigrant members operates a weekly program that provides boxes of food to families in need in the community. Prior to the DHS change in policy, the families came to the church to pick up the boxes. After the change in the policy, families feared they may be targeted in an ICE enforcement action if they came to the church, and attendance declined. As a result, in order to fulfill its service ministry, that church now delivers the boxes to families. This has made the program more difficult to carry out in terms of both time and cost. As a result, the church has been able to serve less families.

c. At a Spanish-speaking congregation…the church’s weekly food distribution for those in need has experienced a reduction in people coming to get boxes of necessities because of fear that the space might be unsafe.

d. A largely Haitian congregation…operates a food pantry that serves its local community that includes both Haitian and Hispanic immigrants. The pantry serves individuals regardless of their immigration status. Since the change in DHS’s policy, it has experienced a decline in the number of individuals coming to receive food because they fear the risk of an enforcement action by ICE.

Not only has this decline in attendance burdened the religious exercise of those congregants who are missing worship services due to fear, but it also impacts the religious exercise of those attending by diminishing the shared community and fellowship experience. Since its founding, the Church of the Brethren has emphasized the centrality of community to Christian faith. Our belief is that interpreting scripture and following the teachings of Jesus cannot be done in isolation or separation, but require the participation of all persons. In a church grounded in the centrality of community, the inability of any person to participate within the community due to fear denies the rich variety of that community to all of its members.
Moreover, the imminent threat of a raid or arrest on church property puts congregations in the impossible position of choosing whether to freely carry out their religious mission (putting congregants and those they serve at risk of arrest or deportation), telling their immigrant neighbors to stay home, or changing or cutting back on the way they worship and minister in an effort to protect those neighbors. All of these choices violate our church’s religious beliefs.

— Contributors to this report include Marcia Sowles, a volunteer Policy and Governmental Affairs associate at the Church of the Brethren’s Office of Peacebuilding and Policy.

#MissionAndMinistryBoard #StrategicPlan #RacialJustice #LoveOurNeighbors #Discipleship #NewTestamentGiving

———-

Find more Church of the Brethren news: