Keep ICE out of Sensitive Locations

How to write to your newspaper to protect communities.

The Problem: Communities nationwide are experiencing deep disruption as immigration enforcement expands into civic life. Warrantless operations and state violence have eroded public trust, while families miss school, work, medical appointments, and worship services out of concern. Faith communities affirm that security for some cannot come at the expense of others. Civil immigration enforcement must never violate constitutional rights.

Like all law enforcement agencies, ICE and Border Patrol must operate within legislative guidelines that honor constitutional protections. Congress needs to hear the loud, relentless public opinion to protect civil liberties and communities, including enacting protections for where we learn, worship, heal and seek treatment, access the courts, and live our lives. 

What You Can Do: Add your voice—whether you’re an immigrant or ally, a letter to the editor can help change the public narrative and influence how members of Congress see their constituents’ priorities. The harms of indiscriminate, patrolling, and cavalier enforcement impacts all families, neighborhoods, businesses, and the country. Below are some talking points and sample language to help you get started.

Advocacy Resource

Publish Letters to the Editor

Publishing letters to the editor and op-eds is a great way to get the attention of your members of Congress. But first, you need to write a piece that tells your story – not just the facts.

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Rein in ICE and Border Patrol – Stop the Indiscriminate Sweeps in our Communities and Protect Sensitive Locations

Talking Points

  • Protect Civil Liberties and Community Safety Leave Behind.
  • The Trump administration’s January 2025 rollback of the sensitive locations policy has led to immigration arrests in schools, hospitals, courthouses, and houses of worship. This bipartisan practice had existed across administrations since 1993.
  • These actions endanger families, restrict access to essential services, and violate fundamental religious freedoms, civil liberties, and community safety. It impacts citizens and noncitizens.
  • Sensitive locations policies are about reasonable and judicious enforcement guidelines. All law enforcement has parameters in which they must operate.
  • Congress must pass legislation to restore these safeguards and ensure enforcement never targets the heartbeat of our American public life.

Starter Questions to Help You Speak to Why You Care

  1. What aspects of immigration enforcement having free rein at or near places of worship, school, hospitals, courthouses, shelters, etc. feel harmful, unjust, or inconsistent with my values — and why?
  2. How and why do my faith, moral beliefs, or community values call me to support safety, dignity, and welcome for immigrants?
  3. How have I seen fear-based or punitive approaches toward immigrants affect people in my community, and what alternative vision do I hold instead? (Note: be mindful regarding the sensitivity of others’ stories and what one does and does not have the consent to share).

Protecting Sensitive Locations, Sample Letter to the Editor

[Insert suggested thank you language if your Members of Congress has been engaging in detention oversight visits. E.g: Thank you for your ongoing effort to conduct detention oversight and ensure accountability in immigration enforcement.]

In July, masked agents in unmarked cars forcefully detained an Oregonian father right outside of his child’s preschool, a nightmare no child or parent should face. Sadly, enforcement in once protected locations– schools, hospitals, places of worship– is becoming more common.

Mahdi Khanbabazadeh, a citizen of Iran, studied in the U.S., married a U.S. citizen, and was awaiting a final decision on his green card when he was detained. This story is one piece of a larger alarming trend.

[Note feel free to swap Khanbabazadeh’s story example above with a public story in your local community.]

On January 20th, 2025, the Trump administration rescinded a decades-long sensitive locations policy to protect societal interests, ensure people’s access to essential care and services, and safeguard religious liberties. Since removing the immigration enforcement limitation at or near sensitive locations, agents have detained community members in places where families worship, children gather, and even in courthouses where people are having their day in court.

As this violent campaign escalates, Congress must protect the foundational spaces of public life and pass the Protecting Sensitive Locations Act (H.R. 1061, S. 455). This legislation would codify the sensitive locations memo and ensure that parents are not torn from their families as Mahdi so cruelly was. ICE does not belong in any place of sanctuary.