WASHINGTON (RNS)—Prominent pastor and anti-poverty activist William Barber and two others were arrested while praying in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda April 28.

Barber had described the public prayer as part of a recurring series of demonstrations aimed at challenging the Republican-led budget bill.

The arrests occurred roughly 15 minutes after Barber, Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove and Steve Swayne, director of St. Francis Springs Prayer Center, started praying in the Rotunda as dozens of police stood nearby, some prepared with plastic handcuffs.

The three took turns praying, lamenting potential budget cuts to social safety-net programs such as Medicaid, often chanting together: “Against the conspiracy of cruelty, we plead the power of your mercy.”

“When we cannot depend on the courts and the legislative power of human beings, we can still depend on … the power of your love and your mercy and your truth,” Barber said in the Rotunda as police began to surround him.

While arresting protesters at the Capitol is not unusual, the response to Barber’s prayer was unusually dramatic.

After issuing verbal warnings, dozens of officers expelled everyone in the Rotunda—including credentialed press—and shut the doors, obscuring any view. Press and others were then instructed to leave the floor entirely.

Speaking with RNS shortly after he was released from police custody, Barber—who has a chronic illness that affects his ability to walk—said he was in pain from the prolonged ordeal but his interactions with police were “cordial.”

Barber—founder of the Center for Public Theology and Public Policy at Yale Divinity School, where he also teaches—said he was handcuffed by police and briefly detained.

While he found the incident unsettling, he hoped it would draw attention to those who will be impacted by potential budget cuts, he said.

“To think that we went in to pray—pray against the budget, but to pray nonetheless—and the order now is that, evidently, if you pray, you are seen as violating the rules of the Rotunda,” he said.

“What we hope is that folks will see this and it will begin to remove some of the fear, and people will understand that this is the time—now—that we must engage in nonviolent direct action to register our discontent.”

Anti-Christian bias?

Reached for comment, a Capitol police spokesperson said Barber and two others were charged with “crowding, obstructing and incommoding.” The spokesperson explained demonstrations in congressional buildings are “not allowed in any form, to include but not limited to sitting, kneeling, group praying, singing, chanting, etc.”

The spokesperson also said the Rotunda is “not a dedicated press area unless it’s for a pre-approved event.”

Some quickly argued that Barber’s arrest appeared incongruous with President Donald Trump’s efforts to eliminate “anti-Christian bias” in federal agencies.

“Arresting Rev. Barber and others at the Capitol after announcing a task force to eradicate anti-Christian bias in government is an absolute travesty,” Anthea Butler, a professor of religion at the University of Pennsylvania, said in a text message.

“Seems like this administration only wants Christians who are supporters of Trump to have access to pray in the Capitol and express their faith.”

She was echoed by Paul Raushenbush, president and CEO of Interfaith Alliance and a critic of the Trump administration.

“The arrest of Bishop Barber feels like the most clear example of hypocrisy of the Trump administration when they talk about anti-Christian bias,” Raushenbush said.

“They are not interested in the broad expression of faith as exemplified by Bishop Barber, but rather only Christians approved of by the Trump administration.”

Rally outside Supreme Court building

The arrests followed a rally nearby outside the U.S. Supreme Court building, where Barber rallied with other clergy and faith leaders, as well as federal workers who lost their jobs, to condemn the GOP-led budget.

Speakers at the rally, which was organized by Repairers of the Breach, focused specifically on how the budget would impact women and children.

“Forty-three percent of women and almost half of all children are poor and low income,” Barber told the crowd, citing an assessment of Economic Policy Institute data. “Somebody ought to say something.”

Speakers expressed particular concerns about potential cuts to Medicaid, for which some conservatives have advocated. But on Monday, speakers noted a dozen House Republicans recently sent a letter to Speaker Mike Johnson opposing cuts to Medicaid.

“Soften the hearts of representatives, like the 12 who wrote to the speaker today,” Wilson-Hartgrove, an author and activist, said while praying in the Rotunda. “Twelve Republicans asking their speaker to not cut Medicaid. We ask you to move all those hearts, Lord.”

A Repairers of the Breach spokesperson acknowledged in a statement that the three people were arrested in the Rotunda after the rally, while “practicing their First Amendment rights.”

Contrast with Sean Feucht event

The police response to the group’s actions on Monday contrasted sharply with another worship service in the same space in March 2023, when far-right musician and activist Sean Feucht led an evening worship service that included participation from lawmakers such as Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo.

Unlike Barber’s prayer service, Feucht’s took place in the evening after most people had left the Capitol, and whether or not it was sanctioned is unclear. Feucht has claimed to have “snuck in” to the Rotunda to hold worship on multiple occasions, but Capitol Police declined to specify whether the specific incident was permitted.

However, Feucht’s event was significantly longer than Barber’s brief prayer session, and while police occasionally spoke with participants, no one was arrested.

“We prayed in public today because the cries of the people who will be hurt by this immoral budget must be heard,” Wilson-Hartgrove told RNS in a text message, after he and Swayne were released from police custody.

“I’m not sure why some citizens are allowed to pray in the Rotunda and others can’t, but I pray as part of my pastoral responsibilities.”

Asked about the discrepancy, a Capitol Police spokesperson said they were unfamiliar with the Feucht event but said it was likely approved ahead of time, “especially if a member of Congress was involved and if it was after hours when the building was generally closed to the general public.”

Barber, meanwhile, was met by police as he marched toward the Capitol with a group of clergy and others from the Supreme Court. He was eventually allowed into the Rotunda, but only after dozens of officers were positioned outside the entrance to the historic room before he arrived.

Despite the intensity of the response, Barber said he is unmoved and plans to continue demonstrating—and praying—in the weeks to come.

“Just as Jesus turned over the tables of the money changers, so we have to be willing to put our bodies on the line,” he said. “I pray that impacted people will (come)—again, not to go to get arrested, but to arrest the attention of the nation.”

WASHINGTON (RNS)—The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments April 22 in a case set to determine the extent to which families can control what materials their children are exposed to in public school, as parents argued that learning from certain books may violate their religious beliefs.

Mahmoud v. Taylor was brought in 2022, after Maryland’s largest school district, Montgomery County Public Schools, introduced a fleet of books centering LGBTQ+ characters to their English language arts curriculum.

The parents suing the district are led by Tamer Mahmoud and Enas Barakat, who are Muslim and removed their son from public school after a lower court sided against them. They are arguing against the school district and Superintendent Thomas Taylor.

As the court heard the case, parents and activists on both sides of the issue rallied outside, with many citing their faith as reasoning.

The Supreme Court seemed to signal its support for the religious rights of the parents against the district and is likely to determine it cannot require students to attend lessons involving books their parents have religious objections to, the Associated Press reported. A decision is expected by early summer.

Parents ask for right to ‘opt out’

The books, which are part of the county’s “culturally responsible collection,” are currently mandatory curricular items for kindergarten through fifth-grade students.

The titles include Born Ready: A Boy Named Penelope by Jodie Patterson and Uncle Bobby’s Wedding by Sarah S. Brannen, which feature LGBTQ+ characters.

Other books in the collection introduce students to a variety of cultures, such as Sunday With Savta by Wiley Blevins, about a Jewish family, and I am Hua Mulan by Qin Wenjun, set in China.

An interfaith group of parents—representing Catholic, Muslim, Ukrainian Orthodox and other faiths—is not suing for removal of the books with LGBTQ+ characters from the curriculum, said Wael Elkoshairi, a former Montgomery County Public Schools parent who is Muslim.

Rather, they are asking the court to codify a right to “opt out” of specific materials the families deem offensive to their religious beliefs, and that they receive prior notification of any classroom instructions involving the content.

“We are asking for accommodation. We did not ask them to remove the books or change their curriculum,” said Elkoshairi, who is now sending his daughter to private school. “Teachers are reading books that contradict some of our religious beliefs.”

Elkoshairi spoke to approximately 35 parental religious rights proponents who gathered outside the Supreme Court for a rally while the case was being heard. Many held up brightly colored posters with slogans such as “Restore the Opt-Out,” “Let Kids be Kids” and “Let Parents Parent.”

‘Parents know their children best’

The parents said they consider the inclusion of books with LGBTQ+ themes to be premature introductions to religiously sensitive topics, effectively inhibiting their ability to raise their children in line with their faith practices.

“Parents know their children best,” said Grace Morrison, a plaintiff in the case and Catholic mother of seven.

“We understand their unique needs, their strengths and their vulnerabilities. No government authority should be able to override our fundamental duty to guide our children’s education consistent with our beliefs.

“Today, we ask the Supreme Court to protect our freedom to raise our children according to our faith. A child’s innocence, once lost, is gone forever.”

Morrison said she joined the lawsuit because she has a daughter with Down syndrome and her disability made explaining LGBTQ+ subject matter in relation to their family’s Catholic beliefs difficult.

“The school board has taken away my family’s ability to raise her according to our faith. Given her learning challenges, she struggles to grasp why her parents and teachers might disagree,” Morrison said.

“This makes it nearly impossible for my husband and me to explain the conflicts that arise when a teacher says something that contradicts our faith.”

Lower courts sided with the school district

The Montgomery County Public Schools current policy prohibits parental notification and opt-outs of such subject matter out of concerns about excessive absenteeism and targeted harassment of LGBTQ+ students and families.

Lower courts have sided with the school district, and a federal appeals court decided the parents had not demonstrated their children’s exposure to the books would violate their religion.

“There is no explicit instruction on gender and sexual identity in elementary school as part of content instruction,” wrote the Montgomery County Public Schools in a list of FAQs on the culturally responsible curriculum.

“Diversifying texts in elementary school will help young people develop empathy for a diverse group of people and learn about identities that might relate to their families or community members.”

The school district added “there is no LGBTQ+ curriculum in elementary schools.” It said that through these books, “students are learning the curriculum indicators outlined for each grade level,” which are meant to help them learn how to determine a theme of a story, summarize text and other reading comprehension skills.

Outside the courthouse, another group of parents and activists gathered less than 50 feet away, rallying in support of the inclusive curriculum. Sponsored by local advocacy organizations Montgomery County Pride Center, Trans Maryland and Live in Your Truth, that rally included about 60 people.

The parents siding with the school district argued that their families and others could be discriminated against if other parents can opt out of the inclusive curriculum. A row of volunteers carrying large rainbow umbrellas stood with their backs to the plaintiff-supporting group, blocking them from view of their rally’s attendees.

Develop critical thinking skills

On a small stage, organizers, religious leaders and community members spoke in support of the LGBTQ+ books. A local drag queen, Javon Love, gave a lively performance to “Free Your Mind“ by En Vogue.

Those supporting the school district represented religious traditions including Reform Judaism, Unitarian Universalism, Islam, the Religious Society of Friends and Episcopal denominations, and they cited their religious values in guiding their support of the curriculum.

“I just want people to know that we don’t have to be divided,” said Ali Kofi Bell, a Unitarian Universalist minister and Montgomery County Public Schools parent. “We can have different ideas, different perspectives and different faiths, and still be working for the best interest of all our children.”

Bell said he believed families against the curriculum also feel they are advocating for their children’s best interests—they just have different beliefs about what their children should learn. Moreover, Bell, who is transgender, argued that limiting students’ exposure to diversity through opt-outs can ultimately be harmful to their sense of faith down the line.

“This is how we grow people who have good critical thinking skills, so that they are not just reciting what they believe, but they actually have a belief deeply seated in who they are and how they understand theology,” he said.

Other proponents of the inclusive curriculum consider the case as a harbinger of more extreme limits on public school curricula to come.

“I think it’s shortsighted of parents to try and protect their kids from life,” said Sarah Odderstol, rector at Grace Episcopal Church in Montgomery County.

“Don’t you want to have these conversations with your children? Statistically, you are going to have (LGBTQ+) friends and family in your life, and I think exposure is a good thing.”

She attended the rally to advocate for LGBTQ+ congregants and their families who she said will be negatively affected if the Supreme Court legalizes opt-outs.

“If we start silencing people and censoring what can be taught in public school, everybody’s rights are in trouble,” she said.

WASHINGTON (RNS)—Department of Veteran Affairs Secretary Douglas Collins has instructed the agency’s employees to report any instances of anti-Christian bias, including any policies that are “hostile to Christian views” or punishments for displaying Christian symbols.

“The VA Task Force now requests all VA employees to submit any instance of anti-Christian discrimination to Anti-ChristianBiasReporting@va.gov,” Collins wrote in an email to employees April 22. “Submissions should include sufficient identifiers such as names, dates, and locations.”

Those submissions will be given to a VA task force set up in response to an executive order from President Donald Trump on eradicating anti-Christian bias, according to that email.

The email from Collins, a former Southern Baptist pastor and Air Force chaplain turned politician, lists 11 kinds of bias or discrimination—three of which specifically name Christianity—ranging from retaliation in response to requests for religious holidays or religious accommodations to discipline against chaplains in response to their sermons.

The email also says the task force will “review all instances of anti-Christian bias” but makes no mention of how to report discrimination of any other faiths.

Trump set up task force on anti-Christian bias

In his executive order, Trump set up a Task Force to Eradicate Anti-Christian Bias in the Justice Department, which included the attorney general and members of Trump’s Cabinet. Like Collins’ order, it makes no mention of any other faiths by name.

“My Administration will ensure that any unlawful and improper conduct, policies, or practices that target Christians are identified, terminated, and rectified,” Trump wrote in his order.

That Justice Department task force held its first meeting on Tuesday. During the meeting, U.S. Attorney General Pamela Bondi said Christians were “abused and targeted” during the Biden Administration, pointing to a controversial FBI memo about traditional Catholics as well as to the conviction of anti-abortion protesters.

“Together, this task force will identify any unlawful anti-Christian policies, practices or conduct across the government, seek input from the faith based organizations and state governments to end anti-Christian bias, find and fix deficiencies in existing and regulatory practices that might contribute to the anti-Christian bias,” Bondi said in opening the task force meeting, according to a recording posted on her social media.

In a post on X following the task force meeting, Jenny Korn of the White House Faith Office, said that the administration would “protect all faiths” and would “protect Christians, not punish them.”

The VA media relations office did not respond to a request for comment Tuesday afternoon.

Earlier this month, Politico reported the State Department had sent out similar instructions on how to report anti-Christian bias.

Amanda Tyler, executive director of the Washington, D.C.-based Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty, expressed concerns with the focus on anti-Christian bias but not religious liberty when Trump issued his executive order in early February.

“We have strong concerns that this new task force could be weaponized to enforce a theological conformity that will harm everyone’s religious freedom, including those of Christians,” she said.

“Today’s action is consistent with inflaming the completely unfounded claims of rampant Christian persecution in a majority-Christian nation.”

Hemant Mehta, an atheist blogger and activist, first reported Collins’ email on social media, followed by the Federal News Network.

EDITOR’S NOTE:  This article was updated at 3 p.m. on April 23 when RNS provided additional comments from Attorney General Pamela Bondi and Jenny Korn of the White House Faith Office.

DALLAS (RNS)—President Donald Trump told reporters on April 17 multiple pastors who gathered for a White House Easter service had complained about being investigated by the IRS over the past four years.

“They said, ‘Sir, I was targeted by the IRS, and the FBI came in, sir, and I’ve been going through hell for years,’” Trump said in a discussion in the Oval Office about his threat to revoke the tax-exempt status of Harvard University.

Religion News Service reached out to the pastors who attended the service to corroborate Trump’s account. Most did not immediately respond, but Pastor Robert Jeffress, pastor of First Baptist Church in Dallas, confirmed in an email he told Trump at the event his church had been investigated by the IRS.

“I told the President that our church was the subject of an IRS investigation launched under the Biden administration that spanned several years and cost hundreds of thousands of dollars due to complaints from the Freedom From Religion Foundation,” Jeffress wrote. “The case was ultimately resolved in our favor.”

For years, advocates for the separation of church and state have urged the Internal Revenue Service to hold churches that endorse political candidates accountable. They insist such endorsements violate a provision of the U.S. tax code, known as the Johnson Amendment, that bars nonprofits from taking sides in electoral campaigns.

Little has come of those concerns, as the IRS has long been reluctant to investigate churches.

Asked for documentation proving the investigation occurred, Jeffress said his church is turning all of the documentation regarding the investigation over to the White House, adding, “Any release of that information will come from them.”

The White House did not immediately provide documentation when asked by RNS, saying they were looking into the matter.

Verifying the investigation without documentation may prove difficult. Asked about the alleged investigation, a representative for the IRS said federal employees are barred from disclosing tax return information, “including whether the agency has or has not investigated a particular entity.”

Focused on ‘Celebrate Freedom Sunday’ remarks

According to the Freedom From Religion Foundation, the group filed a complaint about First Baptist in July 2020, before the election and while Trump was still president.

It focused on a visit by then-Vice President Mike Pence made to First Baptist for a “Celebrate Freedom Sunday.” Jeffress said he was praying Pence would have a second term as vice president and then be elected president.

“Mr. Vice President, I know I probably should not say this, but my congregation knows that has never stopped me before,” said Jeffress, according to a recording of the service posted on First Baptist’s YouTube channel.

“We are praying that when you finish your term in 2024, we don’t want you moving out of the West Wing. We just want you moving down the hall a few doors and continue to build on the legacy of the most faith-friendly president in history.”

The Freedom From Religion Foundation asserted Jeffress’ remarks amounted to an endorsement.

Repeated attempts to produce a test case

Only one congregation in recent history has lost its exemption for electioneering—an upstate New York church that took out anti-Bill Clinton ads in several large newspapers in 1992.

It has not been for lack of trying. For years, secular advocacy groups have complained about events such as “Pulpit Freedom Sunday,” a campaign involving thousands of pastors in which they endorse candidates from the pulpit and send recordings of their sermons to the IRS, hoping to produce a test case to overturn the Johnson Amendment.

The Alliance Defending Freedom, a Christian legal group, organized the Pulpit Freedom campaign for years but eventually gave up.

Madeline Ziegler, a staff attorney for the Freedom From Religion Foundation, said the organization filed about 30 complaints about alleged violations of the Johnson Amendment. Each time, Zielger said, the organization received a form letter in response.

“They always explain they cannot disclose whether they have started an investigation or the status of any investigation,” Ziegler said.

Ziegler shared a letter from the IRS, dated August 29, 2020, acknowledging receipt of the Freedom From Religion Foundation complaint.

“The IRS has an ongoing audit program to ensure compliance with the Internal Revenue Code,” the letter read. “We’ll consider the information you submitted in this program.”

Such letters may not be as rare as prosecutions. Attorneys for New Way Church in Palm Coast, Fla., claimed earlier this month the IRS had launched an investigation against the church after a local school board candidate spoke at the church in 2022 and explained why she was running for office. The church’s pastor prayed for the candidate, New Way attorneys claimed in a statement.

“We have some questions about your tax-exempt status as a church under Internal Revenue Code (IRC) Section 501 (a) and/or your liability for tax,” read a 2024 letter from the IRS. “Our concerns are based on information we are in possession of indicating you may have conducted political campaign activities which are prohibited under IRC Section 501 (c) (3).”

The letter instructed the church to fill out a “Church Tax Inquiry Questions” form.

Lawyers from the First Liberty Institute say the investigation later was closed.

“We are pleased that the IRS not only closed its investigation, but affirmed that this church’s activities of praying for political candidates during its church service do not threaten its tax-exempt status,” Jeremy Dys, senior counsel for First Liberty Institute, said.

Earlier this year, the National Religious Broadcasters filed a federal lawsuit to overturn the Johnson Amendment. That lawsuit claimed nonprofit newspapers are allowed to endorse candidates, but churches are not.

Christian nationalism presents “a gross distortion of the teachings of Jesus,” Amanda Tyler, executive director of the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty, told a gathering at Southern Methodist University.

Jesus always stood on the side of the marginalized and oppressed, she noted.

“Christian nationalism, on the other hand, is all about power—about amassing power and holding onto power at all costs,” Tyler said. “And so, it uses a white Jesus as a mascot for power, but it actually doesn’t reflect the teachings of Jesus.”

Tyler participated in a panel discussion of “Christian Nationalism and the Texas Public Sphere” at an April 8 conference on “Telling the Story of Religion in Texas Through Journalism.”

The Texas Tribune sponsored the event in partnership with Religion News Service, the Institute for Diversity & Civic Life and SMU Religious Studies.

‘Overlap with white supremacy’

Tyler noted she uses the terms “Christian nationalism” and “white Christian nationalism” interchangeably.

“I don’t think we can understand Christian nationalism in the U.S. context without acknowledging and understanding the overlap with white supremacy and racial subjugation,” she said.

“Christian nationalism both creates and perpetuates a sense of cultural belonging that’s limited to the very narrow group of people who held the rights of citizenship at the beginning of the country. That’s white, Protestant, Christian men who owned property.”

In sharp contrast to the U.S. Constitution, Christian nationalism promotes the idea that “Christianity should somehow be privileged in American law and public policy,” fellow panelist David Brockman from the Baker Institute at Rice University noted.

“It runs headlong into the concept of the separation of church and state,” Brockman said, which influential Christian nationalists dismiss as a “myth.”

Robert Downen, senior writer at Texas Monthly, pointed to a “growing acceptance of the key ideas” of Christian nationalism and an infusion of “spiritual warfare” language within the Texas Republican Party.

He noted the influence of Dominionism, which seeks to establish a nation governed by Christians and based on their interpretation of biblical law.

He pointed to the influence of the New Apostolic Reformation, a movement within charismatic and Pentecostal circles that casts the political battle for Christian dominion in terms of a cosmic struggle between good and evil.

And he discussed the Seven Mountains Mandate, the teaching that Christians have a responsibility to transform society by gaining control of business, government, media, the arts, education, family life and religion.

Texas is ‘Ground Zero’ in public education fight

The desire to privilege and promote Christianity within education is seen particularly in debates over public education, said Mark Chancey, professor of religious studies at SMU.

“Public education is a major arena for the Christian nationalism debate to play out, and Texas is Ground Zero,” Chancey said.

He noted the role of Christian nationalism in the adoption of public school curriculum.

The Bluebonnet Learning reading curriculum, developed by the Texas Education Agency, is a series of more than 700 lessons on multiple subjects that include Bible stories and religious teaching. Districts that adopt the Bluebonnet curriculum are eligible to receive additional funds from the state.

“Those lessons clearly privilege Christianity over every other religion,” Chancey said.

He also pointed to the legislative debate over requiring the Ten Commandments—a specifically Protestant rendering of the Ten Commandments—in every public school classroom.

“News flash: The Ten Commandments are actually religious in nature,” he quipped.

Currently, 19 states are considering Ten Commandments bills, and 15 of those bills are modeled after the law passed in Louisiana, which was modeled after legislation that failed to pass in the Texas Legislature, he noted.

The Ten Commandments bills illustrate a “restorationist” impulse of Christian nationalism—the desire to “get back to our roots as a Christian nation,” he said.

Christian nationalist victories in Texas have a significant influence beyond the state’s borders, panelists observed.

“I often say Texas is an incubator for bad ideas that then get exported across state lines,” Tyler said.

A bill allowing school districts to enlist school chaplains passed in the Texas legislature before it was introduced in more than a dozen other states, she observed.

Tyler noted with concern efforts to establish the government as “arbiter of what is or is not religious,” which she characterized as “a move toward authoritarian theocracy.”

(RNS)—A federal judge denied a request by the Trump administration to reconsider a ruling in a lawsuit brought by faith-based refugee resettlement agencies, ordering the government to begin immediately processing and admitting refugees who were conditionally approved before Jan 20.

In his April 9 ruling, U.S. District Judge Jamal Whitehead declared, “the Government must continue processing, admitting, and providing resettlement support to them—and funding (United States Refugee Admissions Program) partners to the extent necessary to do so—consistent with this Court’s previous order.”

Mark Hetfield, head of HIAS, a Jewish organization that works with refugee resettlement, and a plaintiff in the case, celebrated the ruling.

“Even after multiple court actions have ordered their admission, the Trump Administration has sadistically forced them to linger in danger, anguish and uncertainty. As we say on Passover, Dayeinu! That’s enough,” Hetfield wrote via text.

“We pray the government finally respects the court order as well as human dignity, and admits the thousands of refugees.”

The judge’s ruling follows weeks of courtroom clashes between the government and three religious groups—HIAS, Church World Service and Lutheran Community Services Northwest—who are among the 10 organizations that have long partnered with the federal government on refugee resettlement.

In all, seven of the organizations are faith-based, although the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops recently announced it no longer would participate.

Executive orders and court orders

The latest chapter in the case, known as Pacito v. Trump, focuses on a trio of court orders issued over the past two months—two issued by Whitehead and a third originating from the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

The dispute began shortly after Trump took office in January, when he signed an executive order effectively freezing the U.S. refugee program and abruptly halting payments to organizations that assist with refugee resettlement.

The change left refugees set to enter the U.S. in limbo, and the sudden lack of funds—including payments for work already performed, according to Church World Service—left the religious groups scrambling to find money to care for refugees who recently arrived while also instituting mass layoffs.

The faith groups, along with several individual plaintiffs, promptly sued, and they won a victory in late February when Whitehead issued an injunction blocking the administration’s halt to the refugee program.

But within a week, lawyers for the plaintiffs suggested the government was being slow to comply, prompting Whitehead to order the administration to produce a “status report” on its efforts to resume the programs.

Whitehead also granted the plaintiffs a second preliminary injunction in late March, ordering the government to “reinstate all cooperative agreements” with the resettlement groups that were abruptly terminated in late February.

The government, meanwhile, appealed the initial injunction to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The court partially denied the government’s motion to stay Whitehead’s ruling, but parties disagree on how to interpret the order.

Legal ‘Whack-a-Mole’

Government’s attorneys argued the 9th Circuit “largely said that the injunction needs to be paused,” whereas lawyers for the faith groups insisted Whitehead’s initial injunction should remain in effect for refugees who were conditionally approved as of Jan. 20—a group that, lawyers for the faith groups said, likely includes “tens of thousands of people.”

Linda B. Evarts, a lawyer for the faith groups, argued the government’s lawyers “have made clear that they … have not and do not plan to comply with the court’s orders,” and she likened the legal battle to a game of “Whack-a-Mole.”

“It has now been a month and a half since the court issued its first preliminary injunction, and now defendants say that they do not have to comply not only with the first injunction, but also with the second injunction,” Evarts said.

Lawyers for the faith groups were even more strident in a brief filed shortly before the hearing.

“Defendants now admit that they are not complying and do not intend to comply with either of this Court’s preliminary injunctions,” the brief read.

“To defend their open defiance, they splice together fragments of the Ninth Circuit’s stay order to assert an interpretation so tortured as to defy basic logic and erase this Court’s rulings from the books.”

Benjamin Mark Moss, who represented the government, rejected the allegation during the hearing, saying, “The government strongly disagrees with any suggestion that the government has been out of compliance.”

‘Heartbreaking’ decision

The ruling comes two days after an announcement from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops that it would not seek to renew federal agreements to provide refugee resettlement and children’s services.

Leaders at the conference, which also is embroiled in a separate legal battle with the government over refugee resettlement, called the decision “heartbreaking.”

“While this marks a painful end to a life-sustaining partnership with our government that has spanned decades across administrations of both political parties, it offers every Catholic an opportunity to search our hearts for new ways to assist,” the conference’s president, Archbishop Timothy Broglio, said.

“We simply cannot sustain the work on our own at current levels or in current form.”

The cases have also proved turbulent for the litigators involved. Among the Trump administration lawyers who originally appeared before the court in Pacito v. Trump was August Flentje, acting director of the Office of Immigration Litigation.

But Flentje was abruptly put on administrative leave over the past week for “failure to supervise a subordinate”—namely, Erez Reuveni, the office’s acting deputy director, who had also been abruptly put on leave by the Trump administration after he acknowledged in court a Maryland man was deported to El Salvador in error.

Another government lawyer, Nancy K. Canter, withdrew from the case just hours before the hearing. A request for clarification on the reason for her departure was sent to the email associated with Canter; an automated response said she was “out of the office on extended leave” and directed inquiries to Flentje and Reuveni.

The Department of Justice did not respond to questions regarding her withdrawal.

WASHINGTON (BP)—An underage girl identified as Jane Doe was raped more than 1,000 times, according to the National Center on Sexual Exploitation, because of ads her traffickers posted on Backpage, where you could also buy various commercial goods.

A federal jury in Phoenix convicted three former owners of Backpage in 2023 of promoting prostitution enterprises that netted them more than $500,000, according to the newsroom at irs.gov. However, Jane Doe’s lawsuit was tossed out of court because of a federal law known as Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996.

Section 230, the courts have said, provides immunity to social media platforms regarding the harm experienced by third parties, which the National Center on Sexual Exploitation said is a gross misinterpretation of the law and a far cry from its original intent.

The center names Jane Doe and 11 other similarly situated survivors of sexual exploitation in what traditionally has been its Dirty Dozen List of the most egregious mainline contributors to sexual exploitation.

Section 230 twist

But this year, a twist. Section 230 is the lone contributor to sexual exploitation on the list, which is compiled with the cases of 12 survivors the law has silenced and prevented from receiving justice.

“All of these survivors have sought justice without success because Section 230 is standing in the way,” Haley McNamara, senior vice president of strategic initiatives and programs at the National Center on Sexual Exploitation, said in releasing the list April 3.

“Some of these survivors were contacted by predators over tech platforms; some were groomed and trafficked online; some had their child sexual abuse posted online.”

The center is seeking a repeal of the law, passed before the internet was widely available and before social media platforms existed.

“Laws should protect those who have experienced horrific crimes, but instead, Section 230 gives online platforms broad immunity for crimes committed on their sites. This must end,” McNamara said.

“Section 230 is the greatest enabler of online sexual exploitation.”

The law was designed to protect minors and enable platforms to remove harmful material without penalties, attorneys said as the national center launched the list.

Protecting children was the intent

Mary Graw Leary, a former federal prosecutor now on faculty as a law professor at the Catholic University of America, said the very title of the Communications Decency Act shows Congress’ original intent.

“This emerged out of a landscape of trying to protect children. Congress saw the threat (with the internet) and took actions in order to protect children. And the title of Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act is the Blocking and Screening of Offensive Material,” she said. “It was designed to promote limited protections for good Samaritan platforms.

“A platform should have the protection from civil liability to remove things from its platform. That’s what it sought, and the text of the statute is quite clear. Congress explicitly says it wants to enforce criminal prosecution, and it wants to enforce a vigorous protection of children. That was the purpose.”

But the tech industry, both through advocacy inside and outside courtrooms, has established precedent that has retooled Section 230 as an immunity shield for the industry, Leary and other attorneys said on the center’s behalf.

“Platforms are blatantly engaging in criminal conduct, and they’re being given a pass for it,” asserted Lisa Haba, a partner in The Haba Law Firm that specializes in cases combatting human trafficking and sexual abuse.

“And so if we were to move forward in this day and age, we need to live in the modern world, where our laws have caught up with the modern-day society and the internet.”

Jane Doe, who sought justice after being trafficked on Backpage, had been trafficked under “Escort Services” on Backpage, which the federal government shut down in 2018. The ads had been tailored to the location of the site’s user, allowing users to find women and girls in their areas.

“Advertisements of the underage Jane were posted on Backpage, and inquiries from sex buyers led to her being raped over 1,000 times,” The National Center on Sexual Exploitation wrote.

“Jane Doe sued Backpage for allowing this sex trafficking to occur, for facilitating sex trafficking by making it easier for users to sell people online, and for financially benefiting from the illegal behavior.”

Other survivors

Other survivors listed by the center include:

• An 11-year-old girl who was “threatened, exploited and abused despite pleas for it to stop,” after being placed in a chatroom with a predator.

• A 13-year-old boy whose explicit personal images were circulated on Twitter, only to be told by Twitter that, “We’ve reviewed the content, and didn’t find a violation of our policies, so no action will be taken at this time.”

• A child who was pressured by adult men into sharing explicit images of herself after joining Kik, which the center said was aided by Kik’s lack of protective policies and warnings.

• A 15-year-old orphaned boy groomed by his science teacher via Snapchat, NCOSE said, with the abuse escalating into the teacher sexually assaulting the boy who overdosed on drugs.

The full list and other National Center on Sexual Exploitation resources are available here.

Founded in 1962, the National Center on Sexual Exploitation promotes itself as the leading national nonprofit organization exposing the links between all forms of sexual exploitation such as child sexual abuse, prostitution, sex trafficking and the public health harms of pornography.

WASHINGTON (RNS)—A new report published by four prominent Catholic and evangelical organizations claims about 1 in 12 Christians in the U.S. are vulnerable to deportation or live with a family member who could be deported by President Donald Trump’s administration.

“We’re sounding the alarm that all American Christians need to be aware of what’s being proposed,” Matthew Soerens of World Relief, one of the authors of the report, said during a call with reporters on March 31.

He spoke alongside representatives from other well-known religious organizations listed as co-authors on the report: the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, the National Association of Evangelicals and the Center for the Study of Global Christianity at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary.

“Our prayer with this report is that American Christians will recognize that these proposed deportations, to whatever extent they ultimately become a reality, are not just a policy issue but a dynamic that will impact us, followers of Jesus who were knit together in unity under Christ,” Soerens said.

The report, titled “One Part of the Body: The Potential Impact of Deportations on American Christian Families,” serves as both a theological and data-driven refutation of the president’s campaign pledge to enact “the largest deportation in U.S. history.”

Authors of the study said they pulled data from several sources—such as religious demographic breakdowns from Pew Research and data on immigrant populations from the immigration reform advocacy group FWD.us—to conclude there were more than 10 million Christian immigrants in the U.S. at the end of 2024 who are now vulnerable to deportation.

That number includes undocumented immigrants as well as those with legal status that could be revoked by the government—namely asylum seekers awaiting a final court proceeding, as well as people protected by programs and designations such as Temporary Protected Status, Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, Deferred Enforced Departure and humanitarian parole.

Trump already made moves that could impact several of these groups. In addition to the White House press secretary declaring in January that any undocumented immigrant is seen “as a criminal” by the Trump administration, U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem has reversed TPS extensions for Venezuelans and Haitians and announced termination of parole processes for several groups.

The report, which does not include legal permanent residents or green card holders in its list of people vulnerable to deportation, also notes that “nearly 7 million U.S.-citizen Christians live within the same households of those at risk of deportation.”

“Most of these U.S. citizens are spouses or minor children of the immigrant at risk of deportation,” the report adds.

‘Profound’ ramifications for U.S. churches

The report, which also includes the stories of immigrants as well as religious arguments in defense of migrants, claims 18 percent of U.S. Catholics are vulnerable to deportation or live with someone who could be deported, as well as 6 percent of evangelicals in the country and 3 percent of other Christian groups.

The authors hope the data will help fellow Christians recognize the potential impact of Trump’s proposed deportations on their communities and churches.

“If even a fraction of those vulnerable to deportation are actually deported, the ramifications are profound—for those individuals, of course, but also for their U.S.-citizen family members and, because when one part of the body suffers, every part suffers with it, for all Christians,” the report states.

Anthea Butler, a professor of religious studies at the University of Pennsylvania, said the data could function as a “massive wake-up call” for Catholic leaders, noting the report found Catholics make up 61 percent of those potentially at risk of deportation.

“For Catholic parishes, for Catholic ministries, this is a disaster,” Butler said.

Speaking to reporters on Monday, Bishop Mark Seitz of El Paso confirmed the data shows “Catholics are overrepresented in those currently at risk for deportation,” adding that roughly 1 in 5 Catholics could be deported or have a family member deported under the new administration’s deportation policies.

Evangelical leaders on the call also repeatedly insisted the situation facing evangelicalism is dire.

“We want churches to grow, and … the administration’s mass deportation policies and congressional support of that would be, in fact, a church decline strategy, removing millions from active membership of churches,” Walter Kim, head of the National Association of Evangelicals, told reporters.

Myal Greene, head of World Relief, addressed his own remarks on the call to Republican lawmakers on Capitol Hill, where he used to work.

“We can’t just give a blank check to this effort to carry out mass deportations and mass detentions that would separate families on a massive scale, would decimate the American church and send vulnerable people who have not broken any law into horrifying humanitarian crises,” Greene said.

Trump has faced faith-based pushback to his immigration proposals and policies ever since he first emerged as a political force in 2015, but that criticism has most often come from Mainline Protestant Christians, Jewish Americans and Muslims.

Some criticism from Trump-supporting Christians

Recent weeks have seen unusually pointed criticism emerge from within conservative Christian groups that backed the president in November.

Catholics voted 59 percent for Trump, but their leadership has issued multiple statements in support of immigrants since Trump was elected, prompting a war of words with Vice President JD Vance.

Vance accused Catholic bishops of resettling “illegal immigrants” and suggested in an interview that Catholic bishops are only supporting immigrants in order to protect their “bottom line.”

The allegation drew rebukes from leaders such as Bishop Seitz, who called the suggestion “a tremendous mischaracterization.” Even Pope Francis weighed in, with a February letter to U.S. bishops that generally criticized Trump’s immigration policies.

In addition, the Trump administration is currently embroiled in two separate immigration-related lawsuits brought by Catholic groups: One led by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, which is challenging the federal government over Trump’s decision to freeze the refugee resettlement program, and a similar suit filed by Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Fort Worth, which largely oversees refugee resettlement in Texas.

Butler sees a growing tension between Catholic leadership and many of the people in their pews—a tension she believes clergy “have not really quite dealt with.”

“On one hand, you have a big, giant denomination who is going to be profoundly affected by people being renditioned—and I’m going to use the word renditioned—out of this country who are faithful and loyal Catholics,” Butler said.

“But on the other hand, you have Catholic suburbanites and others who voted for Trump who are, like, ‘OK, this is cool.’”

Evangelicals, a group long deemed crucial to Trump’s support, have been less visible in efforts to challenge Trump on immigration, but Monday’s new report points to increasing—or at least increasingly public—discontent among conservative Protestants.

In March, World Relief and other prominent evangelical groups organized a public vigil on Capitol Hill to condemn the administration’s cuts to the U.S. Agency for International Development and foreign aid in general, arguing the changes will cost vulnerable people their lives.

The report organizers suggested most Christians who voted for Trump either don’t support his immigration policies or don’t fully understand the impact they could have.

Kim, head of the NAE, cited recent polling showing that less than one-fifth of evangelicals support deporting immigrants who have spouses or children who are U.S. citizens, have been in the country for 10 years or more, or who are willing to pay a fine as restitution for their violation of any immigration law.

Bishop Seitz agreed.

“The people that are being numbered among those under threat of deportation are not people who are harming our community, but rather building it up,” he said.

COLUMBIA, S.C. (RNS)—When 67-year-old Brad Sigmon was put to death March 7 in South Carolina for the murder of his then-girlfriend’s parents, it was the first time in 15 years an execution in the United States had been carried out by a firing squad.

Hillary Taylor, a United Methodist minister, served as Sigmon’s spiritual adviser since 2020. The multifaceted, months-long effort to save Sigmon’s life, and provide emotional and spiritual support for his legal team has been a “whirlwind,” said Taylor, director of South Carolinians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty.

Her organization has advocated for three other death row inmates in the state over the past six months, as South Carolina ramps up executions after a 13-year hiatus.

The delay was caused in part by legal challenges to the lethal injection method. In 2021, a state bill gave those on death row the simplified options of electrocution or death by firing squad, which has had the effect of expediting executions.

After Sigmon chose the firing squad, Taylor said, “I got catapulted into the movement to save his life.”

She was introduced to anti-death penalty organizers around the country, and, in time, what had been a volunteer position with the anti-capital punishment group became a paid position.

First involvement a decade ago

Taylor was introduced to the work 10 years ago when she joined an unsuccessful campaign to save the life of Kelly Gissendaner, a Georgia prisoner convicted of persuading her lover to kill her husband in 1997.

Gissendaner, who had taken theology courses offered by Emory University while on death row, sang “Amazing Grace” on the way to her execution.

Taylor, then a first-year student at Emory University’s Candler School of Theology, learned about Gissendaner while working with women in solitary confinement at Lee Arrendale State Prison, where Gissendaner had spent time before being transferred.

Taylor learned Gissendaner “had sobered up, become a Christian and reconciled to her children.” When other inmates had suicidal episodes, Taylor had heard, they would be placed in a cell next to Gissendaner, who would “literally preach and counsel them back to life.”

The more Taylor reflected on Gissendaner’s faith, the “more it reminded me of people in my own life who could have ended up on a similar path if they didn’t have access to power and privilege.”

‘We’re more than the worst thing we have done’

Over time, she came to a realization: “We’re more than the worst thing we have done, or the worst thing that ever happened to us, and that the worst thing is not the last thing.”

Despite Gissendaner’s execution, Taylor is proud of the faith leaders and others who organized to save her life. “It’s possible not to just say sorry, but to ‘do sorry,’” she said.

When Taylor arrived in South Carolina in 2020 to pastor two United Methodist congregations, she called a local justice reform organization and asked them if they needed a spiritual adviser or a pen pal for an inmate on death row.

A few months later, she was connected to Sigmon, who had taken a Bible college course at Broad River Correctional Institution, where he died.

He “had kind of exhausted the spiritual resources available to him,” she said. “That began our pen pal connection,” recalled Taylor.

Like Gissendaner, she said, Sigmon, who became an “informal chaplain” to other prison inmates, tried to become a different person.

After his prison conversion, she said, “he loved to share with people the ways the love of Jesus changed him. His objective was to save the other prisoners, who were like his brothers,” she said.

One of his last requests was to share a last meal with his friends. It was denied.

In the years before his execution, Sigmon and Taylor only met four times in person but exchanged a multitude of letters.

As they got to know one another, Taylor said, she was able to confide in him about the challenges of pastoring two small rural churches during COVID-19, “which was, at the time, a lonely and isolating experience. He was the person who could hold a lot of my fear and my anger. That was a gift I will treasure.”

They teased each other about their affection for rival football teams, Clemson versus South Carolina. “He was always making me laugh,” she said.

She learned from Sigmon, she said, about mercy, compassion and forgiveness, particularly the realization that “even when you are mad, you can come back to a place of kindness, compassion and humanity.”

As the end neared, he was at peace, Taylor said, able to seek reconciliation with some of the people he had harmed.

Took Communion together

In her last in-person encounter with Sigmon, on Ash Wednesday, March 5, they both took Communion, and she was able to anoint his head with ashes, the symbol of repentance and mortality many Christians receive on the first day of Lent.

“When I delivered ashes to him, I got to hug him for only the second time.” As she pressed her forehead, already imprinted with ashes, against his, she told him how grateful she was that he knew the power of love in Jesus.

Being a spiritual companion to a condemned person can be traumatic, particularly when the prisoner loses their final appeal.

Shane Claiborne, an evangelical Christian anti-death penalty activist, wrote in an email interview, “It is a terrible thing to accompany someone as they are executed,” but added that the only thing worse is being executed without accompaniment.

“That’s why we do this holy work, and it is also why we are working so hard for alternatives to the death penalty. The closer you are to the system that executes, the more convinced you become that violence is the problem, not the solution.”

Sister Pamela Smith, a member of the congregation of Saints Cyril and Methodius, has participated in anti-death penalty vigils on the state capitol steps since South Carolina resumed executions.

Smith, who directs the office of ecumenical and inter-religious affairs for the Catholic Diocese of Charleston, is also a board member of South Carolina Alternatives.

“I see this as another way of taking public action to try to raise consciousness to help people understand what actually goes on with the death penalty. Because I live in a state where executions are unfortunately becoming commonplace, you know, I have a passion as part of my overall pro-life commitment to try to do something about it.”

Though not directly involved in prison ministry, the nun was on hand when South Carolina’s first execution in more than a decade took place.

“You know the clock is approaching the hour, even though you don’t hear something happening. There’s just something chilling about the fact that you’ve got a scheduled time of death for this person for whom you’ve been praying and sending letters and presenting petitions.”

Powerful effects of spiritual witnesses

Taylor said the most painful part of her work “is just how ready people are to say things like ‘a firing squad is too merciful for him’—as though those folks were not victims of somebody else’s violence first, and didn’t have anybody to intervene on their behalf. There are ways we can hold people accountable. That’s part of what rehumanizing is.”

There is also, said Taylor, a reward in introducing outsiders to someone who is kind and compassionate—“telling a story that maybe hasn’t been told before.”

Former death row prisoners talk about the powerful effects of spiritual witnesses. Sentenced to death as a 20-year-old for killing a man and wounding another during an armed robbery, Jimmy MacPhee was re-sentenced to life with the possibility of parole during a brief national death penalty hiatus in the 1970s. After 45 years in prison, he is now free, ordained and married.

He spends a lot of time on the road sharing his story—and that of Frankie San, the man MacPhee credits with transforming a furious, violent young man into a writer, speaker and mentor and finally a minister. A Japanese immigrant, now in his 90s, San began visiting McPhee when he first arrived in prison.

MacPhee said his personal experience of redemption inspires him to help others to transition back to life outside the cell block: “We all were washed by the blood. There’s none of us beyond the reach of God’s power. I know [I’m] blessed to be one of them. I know the transformative power is grace, how powerful it can be, and I’ve witnessed it in so many others.”

As it became more likely that the execution would move forward, recalled Taylor, Sigmon told her that if she saw a bird, she would know he was nearby.

“That’s too many birds, Brad,” she said.

“How about a finch,” he suggested.

This week, Taylor said, she is going to go out to buy a bird book.

WASHINGTON, D.C. (BP)—A bipartisan bill may give ministers who decided long ago to opt out of Social Security benefits the chance to change their minds.

The Clergy Act, submitted by Sens. Katie Britt (R-Ala.) and Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.), would allow for a period in which clergy may revoke their exemption from Social Security coverage.

Another version of the bill has been reintroduced by Reps. Vince Fong (R-Calif.) and Mike Thompson (D-Calif.) in the House.

A dual tax status accompanies one who becomes a minister—as an employee for federal income taxes and self-employed for Social Security tax purposes.

The decision to opt out of Social Security must be made within the first two years one has ministerial earnings of more than $400 a year.

Opting out results in more take-home for the minister but sacrifices a large portion of anticipated retirement income. It also may affect eligibility for standard-priced Medicare, as well as Social Security disability benefits should the minister become disabled before retirement age. Potential survivor benefits from Social Security also may be denied to a minister’s spouse and children.

GuideStone Financial Resources of the Southern Baptist Convention is prepared to provide guidance to ministers should the Clergy Act become law, GuideStone President and CEO Hance Dilbeck said.

“Social Security complements the retirement benefits GuideStone provides to pastors and other ministers. So many pastors made the short-term decision to opt out of Social Security without understanding the long-term implications of that decision. GuideStone is grateful that bipartisan members of the U.S. Congress have re-introduced the Clergy Act,” he said.

“We believe that the opportunity created by this legislation is an important element of financial resilience for those we serve,” Dilbeck added, noting GuideStone has sent a letter to congressional leadership urging prioritization of the bill.

“[The law would] assist those who have dedicated their lives to kingdom work to finish well,” he said.

Per standard Social Security requirements, applicants will need to pay in for approximately 10 years before becoming eligible for benefits. A plan of notifying those who qualify will be submitted by the commissioner of Internal Revenue no later than 90 days after the bill becomes law.

In the Work Incentives Improvement Act of 1999, ministers received a two-year window to re-enroll into Social Security. Fong and Thompson’s bill would provide a window until April 15, 2030.

GuideStone Vice President and Chief Experience Officer Christy Teeter said the bill would help bolster ministers’ later years financially.

“We are hopeful that the opt-in window created by the Clergy Act will help pastors not currently covered by Social Security to move closer to a complete retirement package and the enhanced financial security it provides as they move into that season of post-vocational ministry,” she said.

“Should the Clergy Act become law, GuideStone will work to assist pastors who have opted out of Social Security to inform them of the steps and deadlines they may have to opt back in.”

Trump administration efforts to dismantle the U.S. Department of Education by slashing its workforce and closing offices is a “reckless move” that will create “chaos and confusion” and undermine religious freedom, said Amanda Tyler, executive director of the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty.

“Public education and religious liberty go hand in hand. Public schools are the only education system where students’ rights to religious freedom are guaranteed to be fully protected,” Tyler said.

“Weakening federal oversight eliminates protections for religious freedom for all students, students with disabilities and low-income families. It is a blatant move to privatize education, redirecting public funds toward private sectarian schools at the expense of public institutions that serve all children.”

While the president lacks authority to dissolve a government department created by Congress without congressional approval, the Trump administration has implemented a major reduction in force affecting nearly half of its employees.

The Dallas regional Department of Education office that handles civil rights complaints is among seven being closed.

“This action is not about improving education—it is about asserting more authority than the president has,” Tyler said. “Gutting the Department of Education creates continued chaos and confusion, particularly for the most vulnerable students.

“This reckless move directly threatens religious liberty by eliminating staff engaged in essential oversight that ensures students can freely practice—or choose not to practice—religion without government coercion. Without these protections, public schools will be vulnerable to state-sponsored religious mandates and discrimination.

“Millions of students across the country will only be harmed, not helped, by firing seasoned civil servants who work tirelessly to ensure they are able to access a quality education. Systematically shutting down the department strips students of federal protections, denies them essential services, and leaves states and districts to fend for themselves.”

Some assert department pushes ‘political ideology’

Of course, not everyone agreed with Tyler. The conservative Eagle Forum applauded what it called an end to “the reign of the Department of Un-Education.”

“Since its opening in 1979, radical teachers unions, and leftist politicians have used this agency to push their political ideology into America’s classrooms and overstep states’ rights. Young minds have been poisoned, parents’ rights have been eroded and test scores have failed to improve. … President Donald Trump has been fulfilling his promises to make American education great again in recent weeks,” the Eagle Forum stated on its website.

Last November, evangelist Franklin Graham voiced support for Trump’s call to shut down the Department of Education.

“The Department of Education has only existed since 1979, and we were better off without it,” Graham posted on Facebook. “We have been spending billions of dollars for what?

“To dumb our children down? To teach them to disrespect the flag and our nation? To introduce them to sexual content at earlier ages including gay and transgender agendas? For them to be taught the lies of Critical Race Theory and DEI? … I think we can do better. Put the parents back in the driver’s seat and let schools come under state and local leadership.”

Part of a larger effort to destroy public education

Rachel Laser, president and CEO of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, linked the Trump Administration’s efforts to dismantle the Department of Education to “the Christian nationalist agenda set out in Project 2025 to destroy public education that benefits all communities in favor of private, religious education.”

Public school districts and universities around the country—and the students they serve—depend on the Department of Education, Laser said.

“Among its many important functions, the Department of Education ensures that millions of American students receive financial aid for higher education and that public schools respect students’ civil rights,” Laser said.

“The stroke of a magic marker cannot take away those important functions and rights from American students.”

Laser alluded to a widely circulated draft of an executive order directing Secretary of Education Linda McMahon to facilitate the closing of the Department of Education “to the maximum extent appropriate and permitted by law.” To date, the president has not signed an executive order concerning the Department of Education.

Charles Foster Johnson, founding executive director of Pastors for Texas Children, emphasized the important work of the U.S. Department of Education.

“While public education is mainly a state authority and not a federal one, the Department of Education does put the weight of the U.S. Constitution behind the goal of ensuring that minority children of color and disability receive the same educational opportunity as the majority.”

Johnson linked the efforts to cut the Department of Education to efforts at the state and local level to undermine public education and redirect public funds to private schools.

“The same people behind dismantling the federal Department of Education are also pushing private school voucher programs in all the states. These political forces have opposed publicly funded universal education for decades,” Johnson said.

“The end goal of the voucher crowd is to end American public education, to destroy our children’s publicly provided education accorded to all children, and to put it on an open, privatized market—simply put, to make commodities of our kids and for-profit markets of our classrooms. It’s wrong and must be stopped.”

WASHINGTON (RNS)—In a March 10 status report on refugee resettlement, President Donald Trump’s administration acknowledged there had been a “significant deterioration of functions” due to its stop-work orders and suspension of resettlement programs.

The status report was produced to comply with a federal judge’s order after the administration was sued by three faith-based refugee resettlement organizations, along with refugees and their families, for suspending the federal refugee program.

The administration signaled it planned to move forward with identifying a single service provider for refugee resettlement in the status report, a drastic change in how refugees would receive services when they arrive in the United States.

It was “preparing a request for proposals for a new resettlement agency” and expected a solicitation process to take three months, according to the status report.

“This proposal would punish those who have long supported refugee families and abandon decades of expertise and infrastructure that make this program successful,” said Rick Santos, president and CEO of Church World Service, one of two refugee resettlement agencies the administration has resumed working with.

“Doing so is harmful, unnecessary and acts to strip newly arriving refugee families from accessing a robust support network to rebuild their lives.”

The administration also said it did not know how long it would take to restart refugee processing from overseas, as Church World Service and the United Nations’ International Organization for Migration, the other organization the administration resumed working with, will need to rehire furloughed workers.

U.S. District Judge Jamal Whitehead ordered the Trump administration to produce the status report on refugee resettlement at an emergency hearing March 4.

Plaintiffs in Pacito v. Trump—which include faith-based organizations Church World Service, HIAS, Lutheran Community Services Northwest and individual refugees and their families—argued the administration was not complying with Whitehead’s Feb. 25 ruling that blocked the president’s Jan. 20 executive order suspending the refugee program.

In the February ruling, Whitehead had said the president’s actions amounted to a “nullification of congressional will.”

The day after the Feb. 25 ruling, the Trump administration sent out termination notices to the 10 refugee resettlement organizations in the United States, seven of which are faith based. Lawyers for the three faith groups and the nine individual plaintiffs suing the government had requested the March 4 emergency hearing because they believed the terminations were an attempt to undermine Whitehead’s order.

At the end of the hearing, Whitehead said, “The timing of the government’s decision to terminate the contracts of the resettlement agencies just one day after the court issued its preliminary injunction raises serious concerns about whether these actions are designed to circumvent the court’s ruling.”

Exploring ‘alternatives to the traditional reception and placement program’

In the status report, the Trump administration’s lawyers argued the State Department is not required by law to provide reception and placement benefits to refugees when they arrive in the United States.

Melissa Keaney, a senior supervising attorney at the International Refugee Assistance Project, pushed back on that claim in an email to RNS, saying, “The court already found that provision of these critical services is required by Congress.”

She cited the nearly 50-year history of refugee resettlement agencies providing “critical domestic services and benefits to recently arrived refugees.”

The Trump administration indicated the State Department “is also exploring alternatives to the traditional reception and placement program” without providing further details to protect “deliberative process privileges.”

In an interview with RNS, Rachel Levitan, chief global policy and advocacy officer at HIAS—a Jewish organization that provides humanitarian aid and assistance to refugees—echoed Santos’ concerns about the impact the administration’s pivot to a single service provider would have on resettlement expertise and experience.

She said the government’s three-month solicitation process was “ really slow-walking its obligations to comply with the preliminary injunction.”

Krish O’Mara Vignarajah, president and CEO of Global Refuge, of which Lutheran Community Services Northwest is an affiliate, struck a more hopeful tone regarding the government’s status report.

“We are encouraged by the government’s efforts to resume refugee resettlement operations, and we hope this will minimize what has been a prolonged disruption to families seeking safety and stability in the United States,” she wrote.

However, she added, “While we understand that operational disruptions are inevitable, the delay in processing and support services has caused real harm to refugees who are already in vulnerable situations. We urge the government to ensure that the United States continues to honor its legal and moral commitments to protecting refugees.”

Responding to Whitehead’s order, the Trump administration’s report also addressed its delay in financially reimbursing faith organizations for contracted work, including work undertaken during the Biden administration.

The report said on March 10, the Office of Refugee Resettlement had directed all payments for work done during the Biden administration to be released. It also said, “The Department of State is reviewing pending payment requests from plaintiff organizations for expenses already incurred and will pay legitimate requests in due course.”

The Trump administration highlighted two payments made Feb. 26 and March 6 to HIAS, accounting for slightly more than $5 million. Levitan told RNS she anticipates HIAS will submit further requests for reimbursement to be fully compensated for its expenses.

Vignarajah also said Global Refuge appreciates the “acknowledgment of pending payment requests” and it remains hopeful “the government will expedite the reimbursement process for expenses already incurred.”

“Many of our partners rely on timely funding to continue their essential work with refugees, and it’s crucial that these payments are processed given the months-long delay,” she said.

Administration ‘formulating new vetting guidelines’

The status report also said the Trump administration had processed hundreds of refugee applications and petitions in the first week of March but that it would be “formulating new vetting guidelines for refugees” with “heightened standards.”

Levitan said, “The lack of transparency about (the new vetting guidelines) and the potential of not resettling people who have been fully vetted and/or have very strong persecution claims are very concerning to us.”

Keaney, of the International Refugee Assistance Project, said the status report raises more questions than answers.

“Rather than showing progress, it confirms what was apparent when the government issued termination notices to resettlement agencies just 24 hours after the preliminary injunction went into effect: this administration’s flagrant intent to undermine and circumvent the judiciary and Congress,” she said.

Moreover, the International Refugee Assistance Project’s statement noted: “In the two weeks since the preliminary injunction order, none of the individual plaintiffs in the case have received any communication from the government about rebooking their travel or other steps to move their cases forward.”

In the report, the Trump administration said it sought the individual plaintiffs’ identities “to confirm the status of their individual applications” but its lawyers still were reviewing a proposed protective order from the refugees’ lawyers.

HIAS president Mark Hetfield said: “With every day that the government stalls in implementing the court order, refugees around the world who were already approved for resettlement suffer greater and greater anxiety. Their approvals expire over time. We are ready to welcome people through the safe and legal resettlement process. We just need the U.S. government to do the same.”