One Year of Protection from ICE Enforcement Actions in NYC Quaker Meetings

One year ago today, February 24, 2025, in response to a federal lawsuit brought by several Quaker yearly meetings, an injunction was granted protecting Quaker meetings in New York from immigration enforcement activity. 

Shortly after the January 2025 inauguration, the Trump administration released the “Huffman memo,” giving Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents the freedom to “use their own judgement” about where to conduct their actions. This was a change from a long-standing policy that had protected sensitive sites (such as churches, hospitals, and schools) from ICE enforcement activities. 

In response to that memo, several yearly meetings, including New York Yearly Meeting (NYYM), brought a lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), claiming infringement on our right to religious freedom. NYYM’s report on the decision to join the suit is detailed in this minute. The legal team at Democracy Forward represented the yearly meetings in this lawsuit; they detailed the court proceedings here.

On February 24, 2025, in response to the lawsuit, a district court judge granted the yearly meetings a Preliminary Injunction that requires DHS and ICE to continue to follow the previous “sensitive sites” guidelines and NOT the guidelines in the newer Huffman Memo. The injunction’s reach was limited to the worship sites in the yearly meetings that brought the lawsuit; including, due to our being part of NYYM, the meetings in NYC. 

This case and ruling received national press coverage.

Fred Dettmer, a lawyer and NYYM's assistant clerk, advises that the injunction makes it unlikely a Quaker meeting in NYC will be visited by government agents in search of aliens, EXCEPT:

• If the meeting or church is actively engaged in breaking the law — what some may consider civil disobedience — in aid of an alien/immigrant.
• If DHS ignores the Court or interprets the Preliminary Injunction “creatively”

Last May, Fred created a guide for NYYM meetings who’d like to prepare for interactions with ICE agents: Know Your Meeting’s Rights: When Government Agents Knock at the Door.