A federal judge in Maryland has approved a request for a preliminary injunction that prevents immigration authorities from conducting raids in certain houses of worship.

The ruling partially reverses a policy adopted by the Trump administration on Jan. 20, the day the 47th president was inaugurated for the second time. Until Trump took office, Department of Homeland Security policy held that agents of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, and other agencies, were prohibited from carrying out enforcement actions at houses of worship, schools or hospitals and other “protected” spaces.

Local faith leaders and immigrants were quick to speak out about the decision Monday. Rev. Ako Walker, pastor of Sacred Heart of Jesus Catholic Church in Highlandtown, said he was encouraged by the judge’s ruling.

“I welcome the decision. I hope that it stays in force because the people of God need to be free to worship without worry of their place of worship being raided,” Walker said. “This decision should bring some relief at least in the short term.”

Sacred Heart is the largest Catholic parish in the area to offer services in Spanish and has emerged as a hub of spiritual and social activity for the city’s growing Latino population

According to the ruling by Theodore Chang, a U.S. district court judge based in Greenbelt, immigration agents may not conduct enforcement operations in houses of worship for Quakers and a handful of other religious groups, including a Georgia-based network of Baptist Churches and a Sikh temple in California.

Chang based his finding on the notion that the administration’s policy, which reversed federal immigration protocol dating back decades, infringes on the groups’ religious liberty and should be paused until a lawsuit challenging that policy plays out.

Quaker monthly meetings, administrative units within the Christian denomination, based in Maryland, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and Virginia sued the Department of Homeland Security and its secretary, Kristi Noem, on Jan. 27, less than a week after the new policy was announced.

The preliminary injunction applies only to the plaintiffs in the lawsuit.

Proprietor Reyna Villegas of Castillo & Villegas Boutique & Day Spa in Highlandtown — a former longtime board member of Casa de Maryland and a fixture within the largely Spanish-speaking community — said she hadn’t heard of any enforcement actions taking place in Maryland or anywhere else, but she welcomed the decision, and her hunch is that immigration agents welcome it too.

“The immigration agents probably go to a church, too. I don’t think they’d have it in them to go into a church and do a raid. I mean, you’re praying in a church and someone comes inside and says, ‘Hello, show me your papers?'” she said. “You’d have to not be afraid of God to do that. You’d have to have no respect for anything! I do think it’s a step in the right direction.”

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