MARSHALL — Some ministers say they’re concerned about new federal policies making it possible for immigration enforcement officers to make arrests at churches.

Cornerstone Church in Marshall hasn’t been affected by the change in immigration enforcement guidelines, the Rev. Mickson Deronvil said this week. However, things have still been tense for some church members who are immigrants.

“The are very worried about this situation,” Deronvil said this week.

Deronvil said as a pastor, he was helping provide spiritual support to church members, and helping them find resources to assist with getting paperwork in order.

The Rev. Bruce Berg, interim pastor at First Lutheran Church in Marshall, said their church was offering to serve as a resource for community members. But at this point, many things were still uncertain about changes in federal policy.

“We’ve been pretty much in standby mode,” he said.

In January, the Department of Homeland Security reversed guidelines preventing immigration enforcement actions in sensitive locations like schools, churches and hospitals. The decision drew criticism from religious leaders, including Catholic bishops in Minnesota.

In a Feb. 7 statement, the bishops called for immigration reform that protected migrants’ dignity and did not separate families. The statement was published in its entirety on the Independent Feb. 11 editorial page.

The statement said the decision to allow immigration enforcement at places like churches and schools was “of particular concern.”

“It is often precisely in these places that we, as Catholics, respond to Christ’s command to care for our ‘neighbors’ without discrimination. It is not difficult to imagine how the changed policy could interfere with the exercise of our faith to serve those in need,” the statement said. “To the extent that the new administration’s actions focus on detaining and deporting those with criminal records who pose a danger to society, we offer our whole-hearted support. We oppose, however, any campaign of indiscriminate immigration enforcement that threatens to unnecessarily or unjustly separate the families of those we have come to know as our brothers and sisters in Christ.”

Deronvil said some of the people attending Cornerstone Church are immigrants from Haiti. With the Trump administration’s focus on immigration enforcement, people were worried that they might face problems renewing work permits, Deronvil said. He said he had helped contact legal aid to assist church members with their questions.

Deronvil said the United Methodist Church has also held training for church leaders, explaining what to know if immigration officers were at the door.

“It was good to know the law,” Deronvil said. “As a leader, you need to be aware.”

This week, the United Methodist Church was one of more than two dozen religious groups in the U.S. that filed a lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security, Customs and Border Protection, and Immigration and Customers Enforcement. The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, claims that changing the sensitive locations policy infringes on religious freedom. The lawsuit seeks to prohibit immigration enforcement activities at places of worship, or during religious ceremonies.

The religious groups suing the DHS also included the Episcopal Church and the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A.

Other churches in the Marshall area had different levels of concern about immigration enforcement. The Rev. Nathan Delich, pastor at First Baptist Church in Marshall, said many people in his congregation were immigrants, but the change in enforcement policies didn’t have a lot of direct impact on them.

“We have a lot of Karen people here,” Delich said.

Karen families in southwest Minnesota had immigrated to the U.S. through a long and difficult refugee resettlement process.

“Their position is, ‘We came through legally,'” Delich said.

Delich said he didn’t know that First Baptist had thought about what would happen if immigration enforcement came to the church. He thought they would cooperate with the law, but as a leader he would do everything he could to de-escalate tensions, “and let them know that so far as we know, everyone here is here legally.”

Berg said it seemed unlikely that First Lutheran Church would be a target for immigration arrests. But the change in enforcement policy was still of concern.

“Our mandate is pretty clear … that we care for the immigrant, the poor, the hungry,” he said.

So much was uncertain about changes in federal policy, that it made it hard for the church to respond, Berg said. However, First Lutheran had reached out to the superintendents of the Lynd and Marshall school districts, and to Southwest Minnesota State University.

“We were basically offering ourselves as a resource,” he said.

Berg said he knew First Lutheran couldn’t house people at the church, and that parts of churches would be considered public spaces where immigration enforcement could enter. But they were engaging with people in the congregation to help act as community resources, if people needed assistance with things like meals or short-term foster care, Berg said.