Law, Religion, & Immigration Webinar and Series
Photo of the United States Supreme Court by Domenico Convertini (CC BY-SA 2.0).
This event took place from 2:00 p.m. to 3:15 p.m. EST on October 28th, 2025. Please stay tuned for a recording of the webinar and articles by participants.
On October 28th, Canopy Forum hosted a virtual conference that will focus on the intersection of law, religion, and immigration. With the new Trump Administration, many changes and political issues have arisen regarding immigration policy as related to law and religion. In January 2025, The “Sensitive Locations” policy prohibiting ICE agents from entering churches, schools and hospitals was rescinded via Executive Order, resulting in a coalition of several churches suing the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Secretary Kristi Noemi. In the past few months, several additional cases relating to immigration and religion have been brought: immigrants in ICE custody are being denied their right to religious worship, a detained international student has alleged civil rights infringements against her, and the activist Mahmoud Khalil who is facing deportation after his protests were deemed “antisemitic”.
On an international level, immigration is rising as immigrants flee to escape conflict, violence, and even climate change. In June, The New York Times reported a significant shift in Europe toward anti-immigration policies reflecting rising anti-immigration sentiments. This summer, Poland announced a law limiting asylum immigration claims. While a bill calling for tougher stances proposed by the right-far party narrowly missed passing in Germany, laws have recently been put in place to end fast track-citizenship. Denmark, once criticized for its harsh stance on immigration, is now a leader in anti-immigration policies, influencing other EU nations. At the European Union level, the new Pact on Migration and Asylum was signed last year.
With controversies and polemics swirling around immigrants, immigration laws, the role of the state in connection to religious immigrants, and religious protection questions, Canopy Forum is hoping to address questions of global immigration, religious plurality, and the relationship between states and religious actors.
“Sanctuary as Insular Constitutionalism”
Bryan Ellrod is the University’s Director of Pre-Law studies. Working in this capacity, Dr. Ellrod endeavors to develop courses, advising, and co-curricular programming that would cultivate the excellences of character and mind necessary to equip students for their pursuits in the justice-seeking professions and to infuse their work with the ideal of pro humanitate. His current book project, “Can These Bones Live: A Political Theology for the US-Mexico Borderlands,” takes up these questions in light of the US border enforcement regime known as “Prevention Through Deterrence.”
“Economic and Religious Arguments for Welcoming Immigrants in a Nebraska Advocacy Alliance”
Laura Alexander is Associate Professor of Religious Studies and Executive Director of the Goldstein Center for Human Rights at the University of Nebraska at Omaha. She holds an M.Div. degree from the University of Chicago and a Ph.D. in Religious Ethics from the University of Virginia. Dr. Alexander’s research and teaching expertise is in religion and human rights, with a focus on human migration, refugee studies, and intersections of human rights, states, and borders. She is the author of the textbook Religion and Human Rights: An Introduction from Routledge publishers and co-editor of The Meaning of My Neighbor’s Faith: Interreligious Reflections on Immigration from Lexington Books.
Liz Reiner Platt is the Director of the Law, Rights, and Religion Project at Union Theological Seminary, a law and policy center that advocates for religious freedom, pluralism, and social justice. Her most recent work is “Religious Liberty & Immigration: Legal Analysis of Past and Future Claims,” which gives a sweeping account of religious liberty challenges to immigration enforcement.