(Washington, D.C.) More than 400 faith leaders crowded the sanctuary of the Lutheran Church of the Reformation in Washington, D.C., on Thursday morning, January, 29, 2026, to pray and organize, urging the U.S. Senate to vote against further funding for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and for greater oversight of the activities of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) personnel.
Galvanized by “Operation Metro Surge,” which has sent over 2,000 ICE agents to Minneapolis, Minnesota, resulting in the detention of hundreds of U.S. citizens and the deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, a large group of Minnesota faith leaders was present in Washington to encourage the national leaders to put continued pressure on legislators and continue protecting vulnerable populations in their communities.
Minister JaNaé Bates Imari, co-executive director of ISAIAH in Minnesota, encouraged advocates and those willing to engage in acts of civil disobedience to recognize that their actions would extend far beyond the nation’s capital.
“Despite the fact that this militia continues to harm our people, continues to target Black, brown, Muslim and immigrant neighbors in our community [and] continues to have us under surveillance at all times, continues to abuse, assault, harass and completely disregard the life of people who live there, we continue to move forward together,” she said. “The actions that we are taking together are not just for us, it is not just for the state of Minnesota. It is not just for the residents of Minnesota but for every single person who has a beating heart in this nation.”
Related reading: “Faith leaders call for action after violence in Minneapolis” by Harriet Riley, Outlook Reporting
With prayers and singing, the assembled group invoked themes of justice and compassion for the foreigner found throughout the Bible and other religious traditions.
A press conference followed the prayer service, moderated by Adam Taylor, president of Sojourners, where speakers from several faith traditions and denominations pledged their support for advocacy work that would protect vulnerable populations and seek to reform the activities of ICE to provide transparency and legal oversight to the extrajudicial actions of its agents.
Senator Angela Alsobrooks (D-Maryland) encouraged the coalition of leaders to follow the mandate of Micah 6:8 and to oppose what he sees as a “moral crisis” in the current administration’s leadership.
“This was not a suggestion,” she said. “…we must love justice.”
“This is a moral crisis that we are seeing. The evil, the chaos, the cruelty that we are seeing, we understand so clearly is not of God.”
Alsobooks was joined by Senator Chris Coons (D-Delaware), a Presbyterian who holds a master’s degree from Yale Divinity School, telling those gathered that he tries his best to follow the gospel when making hard choices for the country. He ended his remarks by thanking the faith leaders for assembling to advocate with their legislators and eulogizing Good and Pretti.
“Thank you for reminding America and Americans, not just who we are, but whose we are and challenging us to step aside from the hate and the division, the selfishness and the vulgarity, and to instead risk kindness,” he said.
“To step down to the woman, shoved to the curb, and say, ‘Can I help you?’ To say to those who are aggressive in our streets, ‘I’m not angry with you.’
“To open our hands, as did these two beloved, sacrificed Americans, and show the healing holes of those who are willing to have their hearts touched by a spirit that infuses all of us today and challenges us to be better.”
Later in the afternoon, a group of 80 faith leaders proceeded to the Hart Senate Office Building for a civil protest, where they sang and sat in the building’s atrium, defying orders from U.S. Capitol police to disperse. The protestors were arrested and booked on a misdemeanor charge of impeding business flow.
Liz Theoharis, a Presbyterian minister, founder of the Kairos Center, and co-pastor of Freedom Church of the Poor, was one of those arrested. She said her arrest and those of the others in the group showed the church’s solidarity with those who had been unjustly detained. She said a core tenet of the biblical message is being missed in the debate about immigration enforcement.
Related reading: “Liz Theoharis: Organizing and building power,” by Teri McDowell Ott
“This is where the church needs to be, and this is clearly where the church is, both this afternoon as we take over the Hart building and sing in that atrium,” she said. “[Saying] ‘no, you are not alone.’ It’s important for us to pray in this way, to sing in this way, to witness in this way, because this is at the core of what the Bible tells us we are to do.
“When communities are being terrorized by governmental officials, … if you’re not being with your neighbor, if you’re not speaking out against the funding of this kind of militarization of our communities, I think we have to go back and read the Bible,” Theoharis said. “Because what we’re instructed to do and what Jesus urges us [to do], … is welcome our neighbor.”
As of late Thursday evening, the Senate had agreed on a two-week stopgap funding extension for the Department of Homeland Security that Democrats had requested. Seven Republicans joined all Senate Democrats in this measure, which also separated the DHS funding bill from the bipartisan spending bill that funds the Departments of Defense, Education, Housing and Urban Development, Human Services, and Transportation through September.
“I’m glad that Senate Democrats were successfully able to forge a deal that separates out full-year funding for the Department of Homeland Security so we can move forward on five critical bills that will bring much-needed relief to Americans across the country,” Coons wrote on a post on social media.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-New York) said this coalition would not approve any funding for DHS that did not include demanding the use of warrants for search, entry or arrest; bringing an end roving patrols; enforcing a code of conduct comparable to force policies for state and local law enforcement; and for ICE agents to remove their masks and to wear body cameras at all times.
