Selma, an asylum seeker from Angola, moved to Texas at the start of the pandemic and then to Maine in January 2022. She fears persecution if she returns because of a family member’s involvement in a human rights group.

“As a Christian, I was praying, and then God just gave me direction, which was Maine,” she said.

She joined a nondenominational Christian church in Portland right away, and she and her two children have been regular attendees ever since. After President Donald Trump’s inauguration in January, her 12-year-old daughter asked if it was still safe to go to school. 

As immigration enforcement efforts have increased dramatically this year, many migrants have also reckoned with whether it’s safe to go to places of worship, whether they’re congregants or faith leaders like one Westbrook pastor detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement earlier this month.

In one of his first acts in office, Trump rescinded a policy that essentially barred ICE agents from making arrests at sensitive locations like churches, hospitals and schools. A coalition sued the Department of Homeland Security over the policy in February, arguing it violated religious freedom. A judge declined to block the policy, citing a lack of evidence that churches were “singled out as special targets” for immigration enforcement. 

Faith leaders are preparing for the possibility of enforcement regardless, and several other lawsuits have been filed on similar grounds, including one in late July with a New England plaintiff.

Michel Tshimankinda, a Westbrook man who founded a church in South Portland, has been in ICE detention in New Hampshire since Aug. 14, according to the Portland Press Herald. He wasn’t arrested on church property, but his detention has shaken his family and congregation.

Tshimankinda was born in the Democratic Republic of Congo and first came to the U.S. from Botswana in 2016 on a temporary visa, according to ICE. In a statement to The Monitor, an ICE official said that Tshimankinda “showed a disregard for U.S. immigration laws” after overstaying his visa by nine years, and was apprehended during “targeted enforcement operations” in Portland.

The Department of Homeland Security has said officers would need secondary supervisor approval before carrying out enforcement at sensitive locations like churches. In a statement to the Religious News Service in late July, DHS assistant secretary for public affairs Tricia McLaughlin wrote that the agency expected such enforcement to be “extremely rare.”

There have been at least 10 instances of federal agents carrying out immigration enforcement activity “on or immediately near church grounds” this year, the Religion News Service reported in early August. 

Selma, whom The Monitor is identifying by her first name because of safety concerns, said the fear among Maine’s immigrant communities is widespread. But she has requested asylum and has a work permit and a Real I.D., so she has decided to keep attending church services. 

“My living in fear is not going to solve nothing,” she said. “Every morning, I pray that God protect me and protect all of us, because we can do nothing about it.”

Whether there is anything to be done is a pressing question for Maine churches and other places of worship. A number of churches have reported declining attendance due to fears of ICE agents showing up, and have seen congregants turn to online services instead.

In this climate, faith leaders are working to set up protocols for interacting with federal agents and ensuring immigrants know their rights. Some are also participating in an initiative to create a hotline and document ICE activity across the state, set to launch this fall.

A climate of fear

ICE made 142 arrests in Maine through July 28 this year, an increase from 102 over the same time period last year, according to the Deportation Data Project.

Several faith leaders that cater to immigrant-heavy congregations declined to speak to The Monitor about how they’re dealing with the threat of immigration enforcement, citing concerns for their parishioners’ safety. 

The ACLU of Maine has a checklist for interacting with ICE at a place of worship that offers several recommendations, including establishing a response team and training staff to deescalate the situation and get the agents’ identifying information. They recommend requesting to see a warrant, and then verifying that it was signed by a judge and that it specifies the names of people under arrest and areas to be searched.

The group also instructs faith leaders to designate public and private areas of the building and to deny access to private areas, “politely but firmly,” unless a warrant specifically permits entry. According to Luminus, an immigrant advocacy group, sanctuaries are generally considered public spaces, while areas that require keys or a staff member to enter are considered private areas.

Bishop Nathan Pipho of the New England Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) said ministers from across the 160 churches in the synod, including 15 in Maine, have reported declining attendance among immigrants following Trump’s inauguration. Many of the ELCA churches have made new immigrants a focus of their ministry, and the sharp drop in immigration this year has impacted their work. 

The New England Synod is one of several plaintiffs in a lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security aimed at stopping the administration from carrying out immigration enforcement at houses of worship.

The lawsuit argues that such enforcement impedes religious freedom by creating an atmosphere of fear among worshippers. Pipho said the threat of enforcement has not only impacted religious services but also the number of immigrants seeking social services such as food pantries that operate out of churches.

“We support comprehensive immigration reform; we support thoughtful dialogue on immigration,” Pipho said. “Immigration is a complex issue which is not served by scapegoating and striking fear into immigrant communities.”

Even churches without large immigrant congregations are feeling the impacts. First Parish Congregational Church of Gorham has run a transitional housing program for asylum seekers since 2023, converting second-floor space into rooms for four families.

Lead minister Christine Dyke says the program has made immigration a more personal issue for church members. “They listen to particular things in the news. They’re listening because they’re doing the same kind of thing I am,” she said. “‘Is this gonna affect our people?’ That’s what they call them — these are our people now.”

Since November 2023, the church has hosted more than 25 families, mostly from Angola and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Initially, most people stayed for an average of three months, but as the housing market in Maine has tightened the stays have increased to six months or longer.

Dyke said she and other church leaders have created a plan in case federal immigration officers show up on church property. Congregation members know how to respond, Dyke said, and the goal is to keep residents safe while following the law.

Everyone in the transitional housing has claimed asylum and is known by ICE, but Dyke said they still fear that legal status may be ignored or revoked on short notice. The Trump administration has already stripped the legal status of more than 500,000 immigrants who were previously approved for humanitarian parole and instructed them to “self-deport,” and recently revoked more than 6,000 student visas.

ICE Watch

Jake Fahey, faith-in-action coordinator for First Parish Unitarian Universalist Church in Portland, is one of more than 40 faith leaders across the state working with the Maine Immigrants’ Rights Coalition (MIRC) on rapid response to immigrants’ needs. He estimates that roughly ten faith leaders are also helping MIRC to develop an initiative to track ICE enforcement across the state, with a particular emphasis on quelling rumors and verifying real activity.

The group plans to launch a hotline this fall, where immigrants can fact-check information and get connected with resources, said Hunter Cropsey, MIRC’s senior program and community engagement manager. The program will initially focus on southern Maine, with plans to expand later.

Several statewide denominations including the United Church of Christ, the United Methodist Church, the Unitarian Universalists, Reform Jewish congregations and the Baha’i community plan to support the ICE Watch initiative once it’s more developed, Fahey said.

One key element will be to send out “verifiers,” trained volunteers who will go to communities to document ICE agents’ actions when called. Verifiers in similar neighborhood programs nationally confirm officers’ identities during enforcement actions before sharing information with residents in the area, sometimes by going door to door.

The goal is to combat rumors and ensure people understand their rights if approached by federal agents. Verifiers will not disrupt ICE operations, Cropsey said.

“There’s a lot of really deep enthusiasm among faith-based groups and other folks from a volunteer perspective, and a deep enthusiasm for immigrant community members and leaders for this type of service,” Cropsey said. The hotline will rely on multilingual volunteers to manage the phones, and MIRC hopes to offer post-detention support for community members, as well.

Fahey is helping to build out a network of volunteers for the initiative, including through churches. Churches are uniquely positioned to mobilize around social issues, Fahey said, because people are already gathering to develop their views on morality and justice.

“The level of hate and injustice that not only this administration but the general powers-that-be have demonstrated through the tactic of deportation and fear and harassment, it just strikes deeply for many people, but particularly those of faith,” Fahey said. “They have an access to community engagement that I think is declining in this country, which is like a place to really go and wrestle with and invite action.”

Cropsey described faith-based organizations as engaged supporters of MIRC’s mission. The organization lists nine faith groups as members of the coalition, including the Maine Council of Churches, the Congregation Bet Ha’am Tikkun Olam Council and the Roman Catholic Diocese of Portland, including its Hispanic Ministry. Churches have been especially helpful in providing volunteers and monetary support for immigrants, Cropsey said.

For church leaders like Rev. Reba Delzell, pastor at Williston-Immanuel United Church in Portland, supporting immigrants is a Biblical imperative. Her church hosts two congregations of Congolese and Sudanese immigrants, and she said at least the Congolese congregation has had a drop in attendance since January.

“I read scripture, [and] the message over and over again is you welcome the stranger,” Delzell said. “You take care of those who have needs greater than your own. You walk with people. You give what you have to help others, and for me, that’s the commandment … when we welcome the stranger who is in the form of an immigrant, we are carrying out that commandment.”

This story was originally published by The Maine Monitor, a nonprofit civic news organization. To get regular coverage from The Monitor, sign up for a free Monitor newsletter here.