Quakers Suing Homeland Security For Tort Of NO ICE RAIDS IN CHURCHES, JERKS.
Weird how Republicans don’t care about the sanctity of worship all of a sudden!
The Quakers have been fighting state-churchy-type a-holes since before they left England in the 1600s, and they have no Quaker patience for Trump’s totalitarianism.
Now, with lawyers with Democracy Forward, the Yearly Meetings of Philadelphia, Baltimore, New England, and Richmond have strapped on their Birkenstocks and filed a lawsuit against ICE enforcement at houses of worship, because newfangled Dominionist Christian-branded cults and Opus Dei Alito types are not the only kind of Christians in this country, just the loudest and most entitled.
Quakers are why those blowhards even have religious freedom in this country in the first place! William Penn protected freedom of religion in the Charter of Privileges he drew up for Pennsylvania, and the framers of the Constitution drew on his document to enshrine religious liberty in the First Amendment in 1791. You’re welcome, Martha-Ann.
Quakers being against ICE’s policy is not surprising, but the speed that the lawsuit came together is. Quaker meetings discern by consensus, which means that the lawsuit was something that every single person across multiple meetings agreed with, and within a week. The speed of clarity there is potentially unprecedented in more than 350 years of American Quakerdom!
A quote from Baltimore Yearly Meeting (founded 1672):
“Our religious beliefs call us to build relationships across geographical and theological lines. Our membership in Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, Washington, DC, and the greater mid-Atlantic region includes immigrant Friends. The very threat of government officials wearing ICE-emblazoned jackets outside of our religious service will have a significant impact on our communities and ability to practice our faith. We remain committed to our religious command and will use the tools available to defend our membership and faith.”
Since at least 2011, it's been government policy not to enforce immigration laws in “protected areas” like houses of worship, because, in the government’s own words, this would “restrain people’s access to essential services or engagement in essential activities.” But one of That Man’s first executive orders was to rescind that policy.
For Trump, Tom Homan, and Stephen Miller, restraining access is the entire point, and Homan has gleefully announced his intention to have ICE kick down the doors of schools and churches if they fucking feel like it. Remember when the COVID denialists had a fit that they were being denied the constitutional right to worship and associate freely when jurisdictions tried to limit public gatherings so as not to spread the plague? Well, suddenly church worship is not an “essential service” any more, or is at least less essential than the service of dragging off migrant workers and putting them on $100,000 flights while fruit rots in the field.
“There’s no safe haven,” Homan heaved to Kaitlan Collins, and argleblarghed something about MS-13 selling drugs. “We’re going to go where we’re going to go, if it’s a church, a school, a hospital.” The light of God may be in everyone, but it is awfully dim in that guy.
The Quakers know a thing or two about government surveillance; the OSS, FBI, CIA, and/or State Department have been keeping tabs on the American Friends Service Committee since 1921, suspicious of their activities helping Russians during the famine after World War I and refugees during the Spanish Civil War. And COINTELPRO had FBI agents spy on them starting in 1956 because of their “subversive” opposition to segregation, and later the Vietnam War.
Can’t wait to hear how Homeland Security defends their church-terrorizing plans in court, that’s going to be a good one. We shall keepeth tabs and let thou know what happens!
PREVIOUSLY IN QUAKER NEWS
A Greyhound driver just told an ICE thug to gargle his balls and the company says they won't allow them on board.
Just another reason I'm proud to be a Quaker.