PCUN v. Noem (Sensitive Locations)

A coalition of five different organizational plaintiffs, including a labor union and a membership organization comprising over 800 congregations in the City and County of San Francisco, filed suit to challenge DHS’s rescission of the so-called “sensitive locations” memo, which had codified long-standing government policy to refrain from conducting immigration enforcement actions in “sensitive locations,” including schools. These plaintiffs are Augustana Lutheran Church, Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish, Pineros y Campesinos Unidos del Noroeste (PCUN), San Francisco Interfaith Council, and Westminster Presbyterian Church. Justice Action Center and Innovation Law Lab are co-counsel.

On January 20, 2025, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) issued a memo that superseded and rescinded government policy, most recently reaffirmed in a 2021 DHS memo, not to conduct immigration enforcement in “sensitive locations.” The 2025 memo said that it was not necessary for DHS “to create bright line rules regarding where our immigration laws are permitted to be enforced.” Rather, noting that immigration officers “frequently apply enforcement discretion,” the memo instructed law enforcement officers to “continue to use that discretion along with a healthy dose of common sense.” The memo was publicized on January 21 in a Fox News report and a DHS press statement. It was subsequently leaked on January 23.  

On July 21, the government moved to dismiss the case. On September 10, plaintiffs filed an amended complaint adding six new plaintiffs—the National Education Association, the American Federation of Teachers, and staff and parents from a preschool that was the site of a violent ICE immigration arrest—to the lawsuit.

The plaintiffs allege that the rescission of the sensitive locations memo violates their First Amendment associational rights, was not sufficiently reasoned, and, for the plaintiffs who are houses of worship, violates the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.