Incident Tracker
On January 20, 2025, the Trump administration rescinded longstanding guidance protecting sensitive locations — including churches, schools, hospitals, and courthouses — from immigration enforcement. This tracker documents the result.
Incident Database
Note: This tracker documents reported incidents only. Many enforcement actions at sensitive locations go unreported — the true number of incidents is certainly higher.
Incident Map
History and Legislative Context
Beginning in 1993, Democratic and Republican presidential administrations upheld policies affirming the principle that people must be able to access places such as schools, houses of worship, courthouses, and other locations that provide essential services without fear of detention or deportation.
In the more than three decades these "sensitive locations" guidelines were in place, Congress never codified policies limiting immigration enforcement action in sensitive locations. Without statutory protections, the current administration was able to rescind the latest iteration of the guidance on the first day of his second term.
Now, the threat of immigration enforcement is eroding individuals' and families' religious freedom and access to important community services. When people can take their child to school, go to the doctor, attend religious services, or appear in court without fear, families, neighborhoods, and institutions that uphold civic and religious life all stand to benefit.
The Protecting Sensitive Locations Act (H.R. 1061 / S. 455) — led by Rep. Adriano Espaillat and Senator Richard Blumenthal — would limit immigration enforcement in places where essential services, education, religious activities, and civic participation occur, or within 1,000 feet of such places. Under the bill, these locations include, but are not limited to:
The bill includes exceptions for "exigent" circumstances involving clear and extraordinary threats to public safety. It notes that such circumstances should be "rare" and defines what circumstances can be deemed "exigent." It also stipulates specific requirements for tracking and reporting, in writing, instances in which officers invoke exigent circumstances to perform enforcement actions at or near sensitive locations.
Read more about the bill here. Find the full list of current House and Senate cosponsors.
Legal Challenges
There have been several separate lawsuits challenging the Trump administration's rescission of sensitive locations protections. Two separate courts have now ruled to temporarily block components of the administration's policy that allows immigration enforcement free rein to conduct raids at and around certain houses of worship.
1. Philadelphia Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends v. DHS (D. Md. No. 8:25-cv-00243)
On January 27, a coalition of religious groups alleged violations of the First Amendment, the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, and the Administrative Procedures Act.
On February 24, 2025, the district court issued a preliminary injunction in the case blocking immigration officials from entering certain houses of worship to conduct immigration enforcement operations. The court ruled that plaintiffs likely had standing due to decreased attendance at worship services and social ministries.
The government has appealed and the case is ongoing. Find the latest filings here.
2. New England Synod, ELCA v. DHS (D. Mass., No. 4:25-cv-40102)
On July 28, 2025, several additional religious groups including multiple ELCA synods brought a suit against arrests at sensitive locations.
On February 13, 2026, a district judge ruled in the case to block the administration from immigration enforcement actions at or within 100 feet of certain places of worship. The place of worship must be regularly used by one of the named plaintiffs in the suit in order to be protected.
This case too is ongoing and the latest filings can be found here.
While these are vital steps toward protecting some religious sites, they are limited in reach and impact. Far more action and advocacy is needed to safeguard sensitive locations from ICE infringement.
Public Health & Civil Liberties
This tracker documents specific instances of ICE enforcement at sensitive locations, but the true and devastating impact and harms of the rescinded guidance are impossible to capture on a map or an incident tracker.
A shared understanding that certain locations are and will be protected from immigration enforcement has been shattered. Religious sites, schools, hospitals, courthouses, and other locations crucial to communities across the country have seen attendance plummet. Just a few examples:
Schools: Denver Public Schools documented in court that there has been a "noticeable decrease in school attendance across all schools" and an 85% attendance drop in certain areas on 'raid days.'
Houses of worship: Testimony in several of the lawsuits demonstrates how widespread declines in attendance have been since early 2025. One congregation in Milwaukee reported a 50% decline in attendance, and a church-run diaper pantry saw participation fall from 300 families to 100.
Medical settings: Healthcare providers have reported parents concerned about taking kids to the ER, pregnant women who skip prenatal care, and others deferring critical care out of fear across the country.
Courthouses: Immigrants trying to follow the law and attend their scheduled court hearings are now forced to consider whether they will be arrested and detained without due process.
As a judge wrote in one of the sensitive locations cases, "there are many other means by which to enforce the nation's immigration laws" than conducting actions in locations like these.
About This Project
This database documents ICE and Border Patrol enforcement actions at or near sensitive locations, drawing on news reports, court filings, government data, and accounts from advocacy organizations and faith leaders.
This is a living database. If you have documentation of an incident not included here, please share via this form.