Federal Government Authorizes Arrests of Illegal Immigrants at Schools, Churches

A man is detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in Los Angeles on Oct. 14, 2015. John Moore/Getty Images

Acting Homeland Security Secretary Benjamine Huffman issued a directive on Monday that rescinds guidelines that barred federal officers from arresting illegal immigrants at so-called sensitive places, including schools, churches, and food banks.

The guidelines were released in 2021 during the Biden administration. While churches and schools had been off-limits for immigration-related arrests since 2011, Biden administration officials expanded the list of prohibited places to other settings such as food banks, homeless shelters, and playgrounds.

“We can accomplish our enforcement mission without denying or limiting individuals’ access to needed medical care, children access to their schools, the displaced access to food and shelter, people of faith access to their places of worship, and more,” then-Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said at the time.

The guidelines covered officers with Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), both of which are within the Department of Homeland Security.

Rescinding the guidelines “empowers the brave men and women in CBP and ICE to enforce our immigration laws and catch criminal aliens—including [murderers] and rapists—who have illegally come into our country,” Huffman said in a Jan. 21 statement. “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.”

A second directive stopped the broad use of humanitarian parole, which the previous administration had used for millions of illegal immigrants. Parole will now be granted on a case-by-case basis, officials said.

Tom Homan, President Donald Trump’s border czar, said on Tuesday that deportation operations have already started.

“ICE teams are out there as of today,” he said.

‘Revolution of Common Sense’

Trump has vowed to carry out mass deportations of illegal immigrants. After taking office on Monday, he signed multiple executive orders related to immigration, including declaring a national emergency at the U.S.–Mexico border and clarifying that U.S. policy aims to prevent illegal entry, remove all illegal immigrants, and pursue criminal charges against those who facilitate their presence.

“With these actions, we will begin the complete restoration of America and the revolution of common sense,” Trump said in his inaugural address. “All illegal entry will immediately be halted, and we will begin the process of returning millions and millions of criminal aliens back to the places from which they came.”

Immigration advocates have criticized the president over his immigration-related actions.

“Trump’s words and actions reveal the enormity of the danger we’re facing, which compels us all to mobilize to fight back,” Kica Matos, president of the National Immigration Law Center, said in a statement.

Groups that support limiting illegal immigration, on the other hand, backed the moves.

President Donald Trump signs executive orders in the Oval Office on Jan. 20, 2025. Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

“President Trump has broad public support for his promise to remove millions of illegal aliens in this country, beginning with criminals, people who have been issued final orders of removal and the millions more who entered our country during the previous administration,” Dan Stein, president of the Federation for American Immigration Reform, said in a statement.

In recent days, the Department of Homeland Security has removed all members from its advisory committees, reinstated a program requiring asylum seekers who traveled through Mexico to wait in Mexico for their claims to be adjudicated, and ended the use of an application that allowed migrants outside of the United States to schedule appointments at U.S. ports of entry.