A coalition of religious organizations asked a federal judge on Thursday to hold Department of Justice officials in contempt for violating a court order that bars immigration enforcement actions in houses of worship. As Politico reports, the request follows an incident in which an undercover agent who was spying on a Minnesota church accidentally dropped a recording device, exposing his true identity.

The coalition includes five regional synods of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, three regional Quaker groups, American Baptist Churches USA, the Alliance of Baptists, and Metropolitan Community Churches. The groups argue that the undercover operation ran afoul of a February order by U.S. District Judge Dennis Saylor IV, who barred immigration enforcement activity in or near certain houses of worship. That order grew out of a challenge to the government's abandonment of its long-standing "sensitive locations" policy, which for years had steered immigration agents away from churches, schools, and hospitals.

According to a court filing, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent was taking part in "boxing/sparring practice" during a martial arts session at University Baptist Church in Minneapolis in May when a "concealed body-worn audio recorder" tumbled to the floor in the church gymnasium. The agent reported leaving the gym without immediately noticing the recorder was gone and returning about three minutes later to collect it. Court records also show that the agent's investigation included surveilling the outside of the church and photographing vehicles in its parking lot.

The filing comes amid growing tension between President Donald Trump's mass deportation efforts and religious institutions. Politico notes that, in addition to the potential violation of a court order, the alleged incursion on a house of worship cuts against the administration's message that any infringement on religious freedom — such as the anti-ICE protest that disrupted services in Minnesota — would be met with severe criminal consequences. Earlier this year, the administration publicly brought charges under the FACE Act — the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act, a 1994 federal law that criminalizes using force, threats, or physical obstruction to interfere with access to places of worship and abortion clinics — against former CNN host Don Lemon and others accused of disrupting church services.

Government lawyers argue that Saylor's order prohibited only immigration enforcement in churches and did not cover criminal investigations, even when carried out by ICE. Church attorneys counter that the judge's order barred operations aimed "in whole or in part" at enforcing immigration laws. The full scope of the investigation that led to the dropped-recorder incident remains unclear, and the government will have an opportunity to respond before Saylor decides whether to open contempt proceedings — a step that, if violations were ultimately found, could expose officials to court-imposed sanctions.

Saylor, a Boston-based George W. Bush appointee, is not the only judge to rule that ICE's decision last year to relax restrictions on enforcement at churches threatened religious freedom. A federal judge in Maryland last year similarly concluded that ICE's enforcement threats chilled religious liberty — a ruling upheld on Tuesday by the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals, which hears cases from Maryland, Virginia, the Carolinas, and West Virginia. The motion filed Thursday asking Saylor to begin the contempt process sets up yet another clash between the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE and the Border Patrol, and the federal courts.

As evidence of that clash, Politico reports that in recent weeks DHS's top lawyer, James Percival, has used his X account to pillory federal judges — including several of Saylor's colleagues in Boston — for allegedly slow-walking immigration-related cases. One of those judges, Allison Burroughs, pushed back directly in a recent decision, accusing Percival and DHS more broadly of "shameless cruelty."