Religious groups sue over ICE raids in houses of worship

ALBANY, N.Y. (NEWS10) -- More than two dozen Christian and Jewish groups, including one in New York, are suing the Trump administration over the country's new immigration policy and deportation efforts.

The federal lawsuit was made against the U.S. Department of Homeland Security on Tuesday. Twenty-seven religious groups claim that the new policy that allows Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to arrest suspected undocumented people in protected areas like houses of worship infringes on religious freedom.

One of the organizations involved in the lawsuit is the New York State Council of Churches, which represents 7,500 churches throughout New York. Leaders said the policy has congregants living in fear.

"That location memo could allow ICE to come into our places of worship, arrest people and conduct surveillance, which would send a great fear through our congregations, which could impair ability to worship," NYS Council of Churches Exec. Dir. Rev. Peter Cook said.

In a letter to U.S. bishops, Pope Francis issued a major rebuke of the current immigration crackdown in the United States. The pope condemned the mass deportation saying it's damaging to the human dignity of those who have left their own country due to poverty, persecution, and exploitation.

U.S. Border Czar Tom Homan said the Holy Father needs to take a deeper look inside his own houses of worship.

"He ought to fix the Catholic Church and concentrate on his work and leave border enforcement to us," Homan said. "He wants to attack us securing our border? He has a wall around the Vatican, does he not? So he has a wall to protect his people and himself, but we can't have a wall around the United States?"

The new guidance does not say that ICE agents should go to churches to make arrests, but rather, asks them to use common sense when approaching. They also no longer need the approval of their supervisor before doing so.

A similar lawsuit against the policy was filed in January by five Quaker congregations and is pending in a federal court in Maryland.