In the days leading up to Thanksgiving 2025, a rumor spread online that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security planned to conduct nationwide immigration raids in churches as congregants gathered to celebrate the holiday season.
Claims circulated on Threads, Facebook, TikTok and Instagram.
The allegation originated from a Nov. 17 report by contributor John Keough for This Week in Worcester, a newspaper focused on a city in central Massachusetts. Keough’s story relied almost entirely on anonymous sources. He declined to share their names with Snopes, citing his sources’ fear of retribution from the federal government. As such, it was impossible to determine the legitimacy of his report and we therefore have not rated this claim.
Keough did, however, share additional information about his reporting process in a Nov. 21 phone interview and said that the “circumstantial evidence” pointed to his story being “accurate and true.” He referenced reported immigration raids at churches in California and North Carolina as examples that bolstered his reporting.
“I stand by my story,” Keough said.
A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security, Tricia McLaughlin, called Keough’s story a “smear.”
“Considering we haven’t conducted an operation at a church for the entirety of this administration I would say it’s a pretty crappy report,” McLaughlin said via email.Â
In response to a follow-up email pointing to several of the aforementioned reports of immigration-related arrests, including a video of the North Carolina arrest, McLaughlin reiterated her claim that there have been “no raids or operations at churches” under U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration.
Here’s what we know about Keough’s report:
This Week in Worcester report
This Week in Worcester’s report was titled, “Exclusive: Trump DHS Plans Immigration Raids on Churches Over Holidays.” In the report, Keough alleged that DHS agencies “intend to implement a comprehensive plan to target Spanish-speaking churches across the country during the upcoming holiday season between Thanksgiving, Nov. 27, and Christmas, Dec. 25.”
Keough cited three anonymous Department of Justice attorneys: “one in the U.S. Attorney’s office in the district of Massachusetts, one to the district of Rhode Island office, and the third posted at an office in New York.” The third source allegedly provided Keough with “a document with a multistage plan on it,” including references to the Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) Home Mobile App — which assists users in self-deportation — gathering information through churches and the “operational approach” for raids.
According to Keough, the story started with a tip from someone in the Massachusetts office, who had become a regular source of his after he did “a ton of” reporting on a Department of Justice investigation into the Worcester Police Department.
“Everything they’ve ever given us turned out to be true,” Keough said of his source. “Consistently, this guy has provided us pretty serious and significant corroborate-able information.”
“I’m a small-town newspaper reporter,” Keough added. “I think the reason why it came to me is because of my relationship with the Department of Justice attorney … and I protected his name.”
Keough’s report said the “Trump administration is pushing high-ranking Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) officials for public support of the plan, including Hispanic pastors.”
In an email to Snopes, the Southern Baptist Convention denied Keough’s allegation.
“Neither the SBC President nor the Executive Committee have participated in briefings or been in any discussions with governmental officials about these immigration enforcement operations,” said spokesperson Brandon Porter.Â
Keough said he also spoke with several pastors, whom he said he knew as a former staff member of the Baptist Churches of New England. The pastors told him they received CBP Home Mobile App paraphernalia, which he alleged followed a pattern the Trump administration has used, whereby federal law enforcement suggest self-deportation before conducting more confrontational immigration raids.
Keough claimed this was the pattern used in raids at Home Depot stores and farms. Snopes could not find any concrete evidence of this, although Trump said in a June Truth Social post that people in the country illegally should use the CBP Home App or “ICE will find you and remove you.”Â
These conversations with his sources, coupled with church protection training seminars happening in Worcester — and the additional reports of raids at churches in other areas of the country — pushed Keough to publish his report, he said. He added that he plans to follow-up on his report and attend a church protection training seminar “to see if, in fact, there are law enforcement and FBI people that are going there.”
ICE policy under Trump allows church arrests
McLaughlin, the DHS spokesperson, said in her email that “ICE does not raid churches — regardless of if it is Holiday season or not.”
But McLaughlin also acknowledged that the Trump administration rescinded all guidance preventing ICE from arresting people in “sensitive areas,” including churches:
The facts are criminals are no longer able to hide in places of worship to avoid arrest. The Trump Administration will not tie the hands of our brave law enforcement and instead trusts them to use common sense. If a dangerous illegal alien felon were to flee into a church, or a child sex offender was working as an employee, there may be a situation where an arrest is made to protect public safety.
Keough said the DHS spokesperson’s response only made him more confident in his report, pointing to the fact that McLaughlin “qualified her entire denial by saying we’re not going to tie the hands of our law enforcement.”
“I really think that she confirmed everything in the story by not truly offering a full denial,” he said.
In sum …
A spokesperson for DHS repeatedly said ICE does not raid churches, including during the holiday season. However, there have been several reported incidents of immigration enforcement arrests near or at churches under the Trump administration. Furthermore, Trump administration policy permits immigration enforcement activities in churches.
It was not possible to prove that DHS has a comprehensive, multistage plan to raid churches over the holidays because the allegation originated from a report relying on anonymous sources. However, the reporter behind the story said he stood by it.
