Background: University Baptist Church in Minneapolis, Minnesota (Google Maps). Inset: Department of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin testifies during the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Homeland Security hearing titled “Oversight Hearing – Department of Homeland Security,” in Rayburn building on Thursday, June 25, 2026. (Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call via AP Images).
A federal judge has demanded an explanation from the Trump administration regarding the actions of federal agents who reportedly defied a court order by conducting surveillance inside houses of worship.
U.S. District Judge F. Dennis Saylor seeks clarity from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and its top officials, including Secretary Markwayne Mullin, regarding “why they should not be held in contempt for violating the preliminary injunction” he issued earlier this year in February.
At the core of the legal battle lies the assertion that DHS and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) have infringed upon religious freedoms guaranteed by the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) and the First Amendment, as alleged in their alleged immigration enforcement tactics.
The controversy stems from a lawsuit filed in July 2025 by religious organizations, including New England Synod and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. These groups assert that the DHS violated the RFRA and constitutional stipulations by rescinding its “prior sensitive locations policy.” This policy change, they argue, facilitated the alleged overreach of immigration enforcement within sacred spaces across the U.S.
As the complaint noted, instead of avoiding enforcement actions at places of worship “[t]o the fullest extent possible,” the January 2025 policy asks DHS agents to use “individual discretion” guided by “common sense.”
“For Plaintiffs and their members, the present threat of surveillance, interrogation, or arrest at their houses of worship means, among other things, fewer congregants participating in communal worship; a diminished ability to provide or participate in religious ministries; and interference with their ability to fulfill their religious mandates, including their obligations to welcome all comers to worship and not to put any person in harm’s way,” the religious groups wrote. “Defendants’ rescission of longstanding protections for houses of worship and other sensitive religious locations is not just harmful and un-American; it violates federal law.”
The religious groups sought a preliminary injunction, and though DHS responded that same summer maintaining that the plaintiffs were not actually harmed by their actions, Saylor found that such a court order was warranted.
If the “freedom to believe,” as well as worship and attend religious gatherings, should be interfered with by the government, “it is only in relatively extreme circumstances, such as an immediate threat to public safety,” the judge wrote this past February. “The routine enforcement of the immigration laws does not involve such a threat, and cannot justify the harm to religious freedom posed by the new policy.”
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The case continued on, and in the meantime, another case was born.
According to a new motion filed by the religious groups, DHS effectively admitted to violating the preliminary injunction in a series of filings in an ongoing criminal proceeding in Minnesota. As Law&Crime previously reported, in those documents filed earlier this month, DHS said an ICE agent took part in “boxing/sparring practice” during a mixed martial arts meeting called “Left Jab” at University Baptist Church in Minneapolis in May.
“Due to the physicality of the event, [the undercover agent’s] concealed body-worn audio recorder erroneously fell to the floor of the gymnasium near the end of the training,” an investigative note in one document reads. “[The undercover agent] briefly left the gymnasium, realized she no longer had the device, and returned to the gymnasium to retrieve the device from the floor.”
The undercover agent was “surveilling and recording attendees in the church gymnasium for approximately two hours,” the motion contends. The filing adds, “the gymnasium is located within the church building, immediately below the sanctuary.”
In that same investigation, DHS also filed court records that show ICE agents were conducting surveillance “in the area of the University Baptist Church” and photographing license plates in April.
“[An agent] drove through the library parking lot to check which vehicles had departed once the individuals exited the church,” the second DHS filing reads. “Three of the vehicles had departed. Registration checks were conducted on those vehicles.”
The religious groups said DHS’s actions were “blatant and repeated” and caused “harm to fundamental rights of religion and expressive association.” They asked for “expedited consideration” of their motion for the agency to respond.
According to the docket, DHS has until Friday to give the jurist answers, and a hearing has been scheduled for Sept. 4.
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