The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship [CBF] recently joined the lawsuit against the removal of the Sensitive Places Act, which allows for the Department of Homeland Security to detain people in churches and schools, as a plaintiff. 

Paul Baxley, Executive Coordinator for the CBF, said they joined because they believe that the act’s removal is a reversal of 30 years of having churches as a safe place. 

“[The act guaranteed]  that immigration law enforcement could not make an arrest at a house of worship,” Baxley said. “To go into a house of worship, they had to have permission from a supervisor and a warrant from a judge. The policy change that was made very abruptly several weeks ago now means an agent can enter a house of worship without any warrant.”

Southern Appalachian Yearly Meeting and Association [SAYMA] and Friends General Conference [FGC] are the plaintiffs of the lawsuit being filed against the repeal of ICE’s sensitive locations policy in Washington, DC. David Small, the Clerk of Atlanta Friends Meeting, said Atlanta Friends Meeting is being used as an example of direct harm because of their role in housing immigrants.

“We’re being used as an example because we house asylum seekers,” Small said. “We provide sanctuary and hospitality at the meeting house. Because of our unique form of worship and because we house people that are asylum seekers, the thought of ICE being able to storm the building at any time is very disruptive to our form of worship.”

The First Amendment promises Americans freedom of religion, without “any government interference.” Since the removal of the Sensitive Places Act, Baxley said people have concerns about the safety of church.

On Feb. 11th, more than two dozen Christian and Jewish religious groups filed a separate lawsuit in Washington D.C. Baxley said that the lawsuits are both trying to achieve the same goal, sending the message from multiple different religions. 

“There are more than two dozen denominations, both Christian and Jewish, that filed a lawsuit in the District of Columbia,” Baxley said. “The one we were involved in was filed in Maryland, the jurisdiction there. But there was another lawsuit filed this week with very similar plans, with a much larger group of plaintiffs. There are now two different lawsuits making their way through the system where a really wide range of people of faith in the United States are asking for a change in response.”

Quakers have supported oppressed people since the Underground Railroad and have supported the sanctuary movement since the early 80s during the El Salvador crisis, where two Quakers worked with a Presbyterian Minister to provide financial aid to the refugees. Jennifer Dickie, a SAYMA clerk and an Atlanta Friends member, said it is refreshing to be a part of a lawsuit which benefits all religions. 

“This is something that Quakers have stood for since the beginning in the 1600s, so I think that’s something that’s important to know,” Dickie said. “We joined this lawsuit because the lawsuit was intending to bring together many, many Christian and Jewish denominations, and we were glad to be a part of that.”

CBF has a page on their website dedicated to immigration advocacy, as well as working closely with many immigrant ministries. Baxley said despite controversy within CBF, they knew action had to be taken. 

“There are a lot of questions and controversies right now about immigration policy and a lot of other things, and Cooperative Baptist are like most people, there’s a wide range of opinion among people who go to our partner congregations,” Baxley said. “But so many of them do ministries with immigrants and refugees, and our denomination has been doing ministry in the United States and around the world with immigrants and refugees for so long, we felt like we now had to speak.” 

After receiving confirmation that the removal of the Sensitive Places Act was impacting attendance at church and other programs offered by CBF, Baxley said they knew something needed to be done. 

“We started getting reports that attendance was down in particular programs like [English as a] second language class, worship services and feeding ministries,”  Baxley said. “So it wasn’t just that we were afraid that the change might affect our congregations. We were getting evidence that was already invented by our congregations, so that really motivated us to try to find a way to ask the Department of Homeland Security to go back to the way things were before.”

Baxley said because a sanctuary is a place of refuge and worship for both Christianity and Judaism, it is a place that should be protected from government overstep.  

“A wide range of Christians and people of other religious traditions want to see America’s religious life protected from unnecessary state action,” Baxley said. “A sanctuary, whether you’re Christian, Jewish, Muslim, is supposed to be a place of welcome and safety and rest, and if it becomes a site for law enforcement, that’s just the contrary.”

Casa Alterna is an Atlanta based non-profit that offers long and short term housing to immigrants seeking asylum. Dickie said that since the removal of the Sensitive Places Act fear within the ministry has increased. 

“One of our ministries is through an organization called Casa Alterna,” Dickie said. “That is a ministry that we support, Casa Alterna has been for years, a ministry to people seeking asylum in this country, and yes, we have seen … increased fear and concern by people who are seeking asylum.”

The AFM is a congregation that is welcoming to all. Small said the recent changes to immigration have not weakened their stance on facilitating asylum, only strengthened it.

“We’ve never questioned what we stand for,” Smalls said. “In a lot of ways, it’s made us clarify how we stand with regards to immigration and asylum, but it hasn’t made us question whether or not to provide asylum or not. it just in some ways [has] strengthened our resolve and clarified how we’ll approach it.”

In relation to AFM ministries, Small said that the congregation has come to know immigrants, and thinks that the current deportations situation is upsetting. 

Through AFM ministries, Small said the congregation has gotten to know many immigrants, and the risk of losing them to deportation is upsetting.

“There’s a lot of anxiety in the meeting and a lot of sadness because the people that we house and the people that we provide hospitality to are amazing people,” Smalls said. “We love them and we love being able to provide a place for them to feel safe and comfortable. And so there’s such anxiety that the government could come in. We know, because these people live amongst us. We know the struggles they’ve gone through. We know the situations that they’ve come from seeking a better life here, and so the thought that they could be taken from us is so upsetting.”

Immigrants with a scheduled hearing are still at risk for deportation. Dickie said that ICE being able to deport people in this situation is improper. 

“We’re seeing people who are really fearful of the possibilities,” Dickie said. “Even though they’ve come in the right way, they’ve been granted an asylum hearing. These are the people that ICE is looking for, people who are new in the United States in the last two years, whether they’re seeking asylum or not, they’re just picking them up and deporting them, and that feels unfair.” 

Dickie said limiting people’s access to fundamental rights can be harmful to the community as a whole. 

“We all benefit from people being cared for, medically, educationally and spiritually,” Dickie said. “But when you create fear in those places that are fundamental to our well being, our spiritual lives, our emotional lives, our health lives, our educational lives, then I think that it’s an unfair burden put on people who are here seeking safety and a better life for their family.”

Different denominations within the Baptist church have showcased a wide range of political opinions. The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship has a more liberal tendency, but Baxley said that their churches encompass people of all political beliefs. 

“There are people who attend our churches, who voted every way imaginable in the last election, with every possible attitude about it, and yet, people who have very different political positions, registrations, preferences, are volunteering in the ministries I’m talking about,” Baxley said. “No matter how polarized our politics are, there are still communities where people who think about political questions are working together. One thing that a lot of religious communities are doing really well is proving convictions and commitments that bring people together that are more powerful than political division. These denominations that are involved in this lawsuit are not just a collection of the places where the most progressive Christians gather. They represent congregations that are politically and theologically diverse, and their congregations are all involved in these kinds of ministries.”