The Radical Reading Room

A federal appeals court has upheld a preliminary injunction against the Trump administration’s 2025 policy that removed prior limits on immigration enforcement at or near houses of worship. In a published opinion issued August 18, 2026, the Fourth Circuit affirmed a district court order in a case brought by Quaker, Sikh and Cooperative Baptist Fellowship plaintiffs who argued that the policy chilled attendance and burdened religious exercise. The panel did not enter a final merits judgment, but it did keep in place the injunction that requires the Department of Homeland Security to follow earlier guidance limiting enforcement actions in sensitive locations.

The court described the dispute as one over the Trump administration’s January 2025 rescission of a longstanding DHS policy that had restricted arrests and other enforcement actions at or near places of worship. Under the new policy, DHS and ICE told officers to rely on discretion and “common sense” rather than the prior bright-line safeguards. The plaintiffs argued that the change made immigrants less likely to attend services and participate in church ministries, which in turn burdened the religious exercise of the faith communities that serve them. The Fourth Circuit agreed that the plaintiffs had standing and that the district court did not abuse its discretion in finding them likely to prevail on their Religious Freedom Restoration Act claim.

The ruling matters because it preserves judicial limits on a policy change that faith groups say turned churches into places of fear for immigrant congregants. The court’s opinion said the plaintiffs showed a credible risk that attendance would fall because of the policy and concluded that such a decline could be fairly traced to the government’s action. It also held that the government waived a strict-scrutiny argument by failing to present it adequately in the district court. For now, the practical effect is that the injunction remains in force while the broader litigation continues.