The Cedar Lane Unitarian Universalist Church, located in the Washington suburb of Bethesda, offered Gutierrez Lopez an apartment to live in while a pastor from her local church in Fredericksburg, Virginia, cares for her children. She moved in on Dec. 10, the same day U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) had ordered her to leave the country.
Like Gutierrez Lopez, dozens of migrants are now believed to be sheltering in U.S. places of worship, according to migrant advocacy groups.
U.S. immigration authorities are not prohibited from detaining people in houses of worship. But ICE has a written policy of not arresting anyone at “sensitive locations,” including schools, hospitals, rallies and churches, except in cases involving national security or when there is imminent risk of violence.
