Minute on Defending the Rights and Religious Freedoms of Migrant Communities and All

People of Faith by Preserving Sensitive Locations

Jamestown Friends Meeting

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As members of the Society of Friends (Quakers) we stand firmly in support of the safety, rights,
and religious freedoms of everyone, including the immigrant communities we know, belong to,
and love. We must respond to the particular insult of allowing enforcement officials to enter
critical, sacred, and public places of refuge. The presence of armed law enforcement officials,
particularly in the spirit of force, in our places of worship is antithetical to the Quaker peace
testimony and to our belief that “there is that of God” in everyone.
Sensitive locations–places of worship, schools, health care facilities, places where children
gather, and social services centers–are locations where immigration enforcement activities have
been prohibited in most instances. In sensitive locations Immigration and Customs Enforcement
(ICE) officers are not allowed to conduct enforcement actions including arrests, civil
apprehensions, searches, interviews, and surveillance.
ICE leadership initially established protected areas in 2011. Department of Homeland Security
(DHS) Secretary Mayorkas issued a memorandum in 2021 strengthening the protected areas
guidance. Tragically, on January 20, 2025, the Trump Administration rescinded the protected
areas policy, replacing it with an unreleased directive that gives ICE agents unbridled power to
take enforcement actions in any of these locations.
We affirm the Friends Committee on National Legislation (FCNL) document The World We Seek
which states that while “[w]e acknowledge the role of well-trained law enforcement to protect
community safety”), we also take great concern with the overextension of any authority and the
abandonment of community-minded discretion.”

Approved in Meeting for Worship with Attention to Business on February 4, 2025.

Kathryn F. Adams, Presiding Clerk