Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on Wednesday expanded the list of “sensitive locations” where immigration officers cannot make arrests.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers and other immigration officials have long been barred from seeking to make arrests at schools and hospitals.
But Mayorkas’s memo extends the concept to a broader category of social services, directing all DHS agencies to avoid arrests at domestic violence shelters, food banks, counseling facilities and disaster response centers.
It also bars arrests at churches, and at rallies, demonstrations or parades.
“We can accomplish our enforcement mission without denying or limiting individuals’ access to needed medical care, children access to their schools, the displaced access to food and shelter, people of faith access to their places of worship, and more,” Mayorkas wrote in the memo.
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