Acting DHS Secretary Huffman rescinded 'sensitive locations' policy shielding churches, schools, hospitals from ICE enforcement

On January 20, 2025 — his first day back in office — Acting Homeland Security Secretary Benjamine C. Huffman signed a memo titled "Enforcement Actions in or Near Protected Areas," rescinding then-Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas's October 27, 2021 "Guidelines for Enforcement Actions in or Near Protected Areas." The rescinded 2021 policy, itself building on guidance first issued in 1993 and formalized by ICE in 2011, had required DHS officers to seek prior approval from agency headquarters before making an arrest, search, seizure, interview, or surveillance action in or near "protected areas" — schools, hospitals and other medical facilities, and places of worship — absent exigent circumstances. Huffman's memo eliminated that pre-approval requirement outright, stating that "it is not necessary...for the head of the agency to create bright line rules regarding where our immigration laws are permitted to be enforced" and directing officers to rely instead on discretion "along with a healthy dose of common sense."

A DHS spokesperson framed the change bluntly the next day: "Criminals will no longer be able to hide in America's schools and churches to avoid arrest. The Trump Administration will not tie the hands of our brave law enforcement, and instead trusts them to use common sense." Immigrant-rights advocates warned the reversal would deter people from attending school, seeking medical care, or worshipping for fear of encountering immigration agents. On January 31, 2025, ICE Acting Director Caleb Vitello issued follow-up implementation guidance directing officers to weigh, on a case-by-case basis, whether an enforcement action would occur in one of the newly unprotected categories of location.

The 2021 guidelines had never been enacted as a statute or regulation, so their removal required no congressional or public-rulemaking process — a single internal memo, effective immediately, was sufficient to eliminate a protection that had shaped immigration enforcement practice for over a decade.

Updates

2025-02-24 — Federal judge enjoined enforcement at plaintiff congregations [5, 6]

U.S. District Judge Theodore D. Chuang (D. Md.) granted a preliminary injunction sought by Quaker, Cooperative Baptist, and Sikh congregations, requiring DHS to revert to the 2021 protected-areas guidelines at the plaintiffs' houses of worship while their suit (Philadelphia Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends v. DHS) proceeded. Chuang found the new policy likely violated the plaintiffs' rights under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act and the First Amendment; the order did not apply nationwide.

2025-05-06 — Federal judge declined to block enforcement near Minnesota schools [7, 8]

U.S. District Judge Laura Provinzino (D. Minn.) denied a preliminary injunction sought by Duluth and Fridley public schools and Education Minnesota, which sought to bar immigration enforcement activity near school grounds amid "Operation Metro Surge." Provinzino found the 2025 policy change did not alter DHS's underlying legal authority to conduct enforcement near schools, only its willingness to do so, and that plaintiffs had not shown their claimed harms stemmed directly from the policy change.

2026-08-19 — Fourth Circuit upheld the injunction protecting houses of worship [9, 10]

A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit unanimously affirmed Judge Chuang's 2025 preliminary injunction, agreeing that the 2025 policy likely violates the plaintiff congregations' rights under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act and the First Amendment and finding it had already caused documented declines in attendance at the plaintiffs' houses of worship. The injunction, covering more than 1,400 houses of worship across 33 states and D.C., remains limited to the plaintiff congregations rather than applying nationwide.