How Progressive Faith Groups Are Using Religious Freedom Laws to Push Back on Immigration and Abortion Policies

Key points

• Interfaith organisers have filed multiple lawsuits in the US arguing that Trump-era immigration and abortion policies violate their religious beliefs.
• A pastor was shot with pepper balls outside an ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) facility in one of the most visible moments of faith-based resistance in 2025.
• Progressive congregations are using the same religious liberty legal arguments that conservative groups previously used in Supreme Court cases over LGBTQ+ rights and contraception.
• Religious freedom law does not belong exclusively to one side of the political debate, and courts are now being asked to test that idea.

Religious freedom used to feel like a conservative talking point. Think of the bakery that refused to make a wedding cake for a same-sex couple, or the employers who fought contraceptive coverage mandates all the way to the Supreme Court. The argument was simple: my faith, my rules.

Now progressive faith communities are making the same legal argument, just pointing it in a different direction.

As first reported by The Guardian, interfaith organisers across the United States have launched a wave of lawsuits against policies from the Trump administration's second term. Their claim: policies restricting abortion access and ramping up immigration enforcement force them to act against sincerely held religious beliefs, which is exactly the kind of harm religious freedom law is designed to prevent.

What does this actually look like in practice?

One image that circulated widely in early 2025 showed a pastor recoiling as he was hit by pepper balls outside an ICE facility. That is faith-based civil disobedience in a very physical form.

In court it looks different. Clergy and congregations argue that sheltering undocumented immigrants is a religious duty, not a political act. Some faith traditions hold that life begins at a different point than current abortion bans do, meaning those bans force believers to violate their own theology.

That is the crux: if the law says a pharmacist can refuse to fill a prescription because of their beliefs, can a congregation refuse to hand over an undocumented parishioner because of theirs? Lawyers are now asking exactly that.

Does this have a realistic chance of working?

It is genuinely untested at scale. Conservative groups spent decades building legal infrastructure around religious liberty claims, winning significant Supreme Court victories along the way. Progressive faith groups are, in many ways, borrowing that infrastructure.

The legal theory is sound enough to take seriously. The Religious Freedom Restoration Act, a federal law passed in 1993, says the government cannot substantially burden a person's religious practice without a very good reason. That cuts both ways.

Results will vary case by case, court by court. Some claims will be dismissed quickly. Others could climb high enough to force a real reckoning with how broadly religious freedom protections apply.

What does this mean for ordinary people?

If you attend a progressive church, mosque, synagogue, or any faith community that is quietly supporting immigrants or providing abortion-related guidance, your congregation may already be part of this legal moment, whether you knew it or not.

It also means the phrase "religious freedom" is no longer a reliable shorthand for one political position. That alone is worth knowing.

Common questions

Can a church legally shelter undocumented immigrants?

The legal answer is still being worked out in court. Some faith communities argue their religious duty to offer sanctuary is protected under federal religious freedom law, but no definitive ruling has confirmed that yet.

Does religious freedom law apply equally to all faiths?

In principle, yes. The Religious Freedom Restoration Act applies to sincere religious beliefs regardless of denomination or tradition, which is exactly why both conservative and progressive groups can use it.