Alan: The first two issues won't (yet) arise because, as far as I know, the law does not require any private persons -- or cities, for that matter -- to assist DHS with its removal proceedings. There are no "obligations to disclose" information about immigration status, in particular. (All that 8 USC 1373(a) does is to prohibit cities from prohibiting their own employees from providing such info to the feds if they so choose.)
I'm also not aware of any cases involving your third scenario, in which (as I understand it) a church harbors a removable alien and refuses to allow immigration officials to enter the facilities to arrest the individual. On Mon, Mar 27, 2017 at 11:50 PM, Alan E Brownstein < aebrownst...@ucdavis.edu> wrote: > Has anyone written anything about (or given some thought to) the > possibility of RFRA being employed to challenge the federal government's > deportation policies. > > > For example, might a professor or registrar at a private school be > permitted to assert RFRA as a defense to a federal law requiring her to > seek and disclose the immigration status of students? > > > Could a "sanctuary city" assert that it is relieving any of its employees > from any obligation to disclose information about the immigration status of > persons within the jurisdiction to federal immigration authorities if it > would violate their religious beliefs to do so? Might the city argue that > such an order complies with federal law because it is mandated by RFRA? > > > May a church provide sanctuary to an undocumented refugee at risk of > deportation and assert a RFRA claim to avoid prosecution for doing so? The > church would assert it is prohibited by its beliefs from denying sanctuary > in these circumstances. > > > I recognize, of course, that successfully asserting a substantial burden > on religious exercise only shifts the burden to the government to justify > its actions under strict scrutiny. > > > Alan Brownstein > > _______________________________________________ > To post, send message to Religionlaw@lists.ucla.edu > To subscribe, unsubscribe, change options, or get password, see > http://lists.ucla.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/religionlaw > > Please note that messages sent to this large list cannot be viewed as > private. Anyone can subscribe to the list and read messages that are > posted; people can read the Web archives; and list members can (rightly or > wrongly) forward the messages to others. >
_______________________________________________ To post, send message to Religionlaw@lists.ucla.edu To subscribe, unsubscribe, change options, or get password, see http://lists.ucla.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/religionlaw Please note that messages sent to this large list cannot be viewed as private. Anyone can subscribe to the list and read messages that are posted; people can read the Web archives; and list members can (rightly or wrongly) forward the messages to others.
