US Court of Appeals upheld our freedom of religion by affirming the injunction protecting NYC Quaker sites from ICE enforcement activity.
Exciting and heartening news! The temporary injunction protecting NYC Quaker spaces from immigration enforcement actions has just been affirmed by the Fourth Circuit of the US Court of Appeals.
Early last year, a lawsuit was brought by several Quaker yearly meetings, including New York, objecting to a change to ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) policy. In January 2025, the Trump administration announced that ICE agents could “use their own judgement” when deciding to take action in “sensitive sites” like churches, schools, and hospitals — sites that previously had been protected. The lawsuit argued that the threat of ICE activity would keep people away from Quaker meetings for worship, harming our freedom to practice religion as guaranteed by the First Amendment. In February 2026 a US District Court agreed, granted a temporary injunction protecting our religious spaces from ICE actions. This injunction was upheld while the lawsuit waited to be heard at the US Court of Appeals.
The Appeals Court ruling on August 18, 2026, affirms the injunction and ensures that NYC Quaker spaces will continue to be protected from ICE activity. This victory is a repudiation of the Trump administration’s unlawful attempts to limit our First Amendment freedoms. We hope that this protection will soon be granted to all religious sites across the country.
The wonderful and effective legal team at Democracy Forward represents us in this lawsuit and reported on this update.
Philadelphia Yearly Meeting has shared a lot of information about this lawsuit and posted about this new ruling.
