Trump gives immigration agents power to raid churches and schools for deportations

Alicia A. Caldwell, Bloomberg News on Jan 21, 2025

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The Trump administration has expanded the authority of immigration agents, allowing them to make arrests at previously protected locations such as schools and churches.

Acting Homeland Security Secretary Benjamine Huffman revoked a directive that restricted agents from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, as well as Customs and Border Protection, from conducting operations at schools, places of worship, hospitals and events such as weddings and funerals.

“Criminals will no longer be able to hide in America’s schools and churches to avoid arrest,” a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said in a statement on Tuesday. “The Trump Administration will not tie the hands of our brave law enforcement, and instead trusts them to use common sense.”

The rollback, part of President Donald Trump’s broader immigration crackdown, eliminates protections meant to ensure immigrants could access essential services without fear of arrest. Trump’s border czar, Tom Homan, said in an interview on CNN on Tuesday that targeted immigration raids were already happening across the U.S., without disclosing exactly where.

Trump has pledged to enact the largest mass deportation operation in US history, targeting an estimated 11 million people who are in the country illegally.

The administration has also moved to disband the Biden-era Family Reunification Task Force, which worked to reunite children separated from their parents under Trump’s first-term family separation policy.

Roughly 4,600 migrant children were separated from their parents during the Trump administration. As of March 2024, about 70% had been reunited with their families, according to a DHS status report.

Amy Fischer, director of the Refugee and Migrant Rights Program at Amnesty International USA, condemned the measures, calling them a return to “harmful, racist, anti-immigrant agenda.”

“Family separation and detention is an inherently cruel practice that results in significant and long-lasting trauma for children,” Fischer said.

In a separate move, the administration reinstated the controversial “Remain in Mexico” policy, officially known as the Migrant Protection Protocols. The program forces asylum seekers to wait in Mexico while their cases are adjudicated in the U.S. immigration courts. Most migrants subjected to the policy were ultimately denied asylum.

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum appeared to accept that the U.S. would be turning back certain migrants to Mexico, implying that it was a unilateral decision.

“This has nothing to do with the ‘safe third country’ and all that, but is a statement from the United States government. What do we do about it?” Sheinbaum said in a statement posted to the Mexican government’s website on Tuesday. Mexico will “act in a humanitarian manner” and potentially help non-Mexicans return to their home countries, she said.

During Trump’s inauguration celebrations on Monday, the administration abruptly ended the CBP One app system, which had allowed migrants to schedule appointments along the southern border. The decision effectively closed legal avenues for most asylum seekers.