(RNS) — The White House is beginning to unveil a myriad of events highlighting the 250^th anniversary of the founding of the United States. This should be a year for celebrating the core values of democracy and freedom for which generations of Americans have struggled and for which we continue to strive. It should be a time for honestly reflecting on our history as a country — the good and the bad — and recommitting ourselves to the principles of equality for all and government of, by and for the people.   

Unfortunately, 250 years after the founding of this country, some of our most fundamental freedoms are at risk. It is time Congress acts to protect them.   

For people of many different faiths, including Quakers like me, religious freedom is one of the most important principles upon which our country was founded. Early Quakers migrated to this continent seeking freedom for their beliefs and the right to worship and practice their faith without persecution. This includes our belief in the inherent sacredness of all people, a rejection of religious hierarchy, and a form of worship that invites divine insights from all those gathered.   

No, we have not always lived up to our testimonies of peace and equality. Still, the right to practice our faith without fear of persecution remains fundamental to our survival as a faith community as we persist in seeking to live up to our spiritual teachings. 

We have also joined with others throughout our country’s history to ensure that the fundamental freedoms and rights granted by our Constitution reach all communities. Among them are protections for the most basic forms of community life: the right to worship in our own traditions, to send our children to school, to seek care when we are sick and to vote without fear or intimidation. Yet, the Trump administration is now violating these freedoms and sowing concern and distrust among our families and neighbors.  

In January 2025, the Trump administration ended a long-standing bipartisan policy that protected civil liberties and access to vital services at what are known as “sensitive locations.” From houses of worship to schools and hospitals, these are places where our families and communities practice the most basic activities of civic life and care for one another, where our freedoms should be treated especially carefully and with respect.   

Simply put, sensitive-locations policies have never existed as prohibitive measures. It’s about reasonable and judicious enforcement guidelines — the totality of American interests. All law enforcement entities have parameters in which they must operate. For more than 30 years, the expectation that enforcement agents consider the potential disruption to constitutional and public interest activities has been a cornerstone bipartisan principle undergirding civil liberties and basic freedoms.  

Unfortunately, the Trump administration’s rollback of the sensitive-locations policy has led to unconscionable and damaging immigration arrests at or near schools, hospitals and courthouses. From sea to shining sea, even places of worship have witnessed Immigration and Customs Enforcement activities on their steps, including at least one arrest during biblically ordained ministry.   

Last year, more than 600 apprehensions occurred at courthouses in Massachusetts alone. Despite the Department of Homeland Security’s insistence that ICE does not raid schools, communities have suffered the opposite with immigration enforcement patrolling around schools from Texas and Colorado to Minnesota.  

North Carolina offers another egregious example of academic disruption caused by the Trump administration’s practices. These actions endanger families, restrict access to essential services and violate fundamental religious freedoms, civil liberties and community safety — impacting both citizens and noncitizens alike. 

I never imagined I would join other parents ensuring our children can feel safe walking to school amid the threat of patrolling ICE agents. Or that my faith community would need to sue the president of the United States for violating our religious freedom by removing protections from houses of worship. Or that people in my community would be too afraid to go to the hospital when they are sick. Yet, communities across the country — in red and blue states — now face these devastating realities.  

For more than three decades, both Democratic and Republican administrations maintained that immigration enforcement at or near schools, houses of worship, health care facilities and social services should occur only under exceptional circumstances. During that time, sensitive-location policies still permitted local and other law enforcement to carry out their work to the full extent, and public safety and national security measures took precedence. This point can’t be stressed enough. 

Those bipartisan guardrails didn’t happen arbitrarily or without intention. Since President Donald Trump rescinded them last year, all Americans, especially our lawmakers, should be concerned about the avalanche of civic harm that continues to disrupt daily activities and access to services. This is not a partisan issue; it’s fundamentally an American value. It’s also a First and Fourth Amendments issue.  

Despite all the chaos we’ve witnessed, Congress still has the power to rein in excessive violence and indiscriminate enforcement, protect civil liberties and reprioritize safety in our communities. But lawmakers must act now to reinstitute the checks and balances our democracy has provided for 250 years.

Congress has an opportunity to protect these freedoms in current spending conversations. It should pass a Fiscal Year 2026 Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Act that invests in meaningful accountability and oversight, including clear guidelines to ensure communities are safe from unchecked enforcement. And it is possible to do so without the harm and political theater caused by a DHS shutdown. Advancing the Protecting Sensitive Locations Act (H.R. 1061/S. 455) as an accountability measure would restore and strengthen long-standing, sensible, bipartisan guardrails and ensure statutory clarity on enforcement in these spaces. After all, law enforcement should be transparent and accountable to the community, not acting with impunity, carrying out state violence and destroying community trust. 

How can we honor the 250^th birthday of our country while our families and communities live in fear, unable to practice the most basic activities that life in the U.S. used to promise? How can we continue the struggle for freedom at the heart of our democracy without protecting the most basic freedoms upon which our country was founded?   

No matter our faith tradition or political persuasion, the time to stand up for our core freedoms is now. That is how we can celebrate 250 years of our United States.   

(Bridget Moix is the general secretary of the Friends Committee on National Legislation and leads two other Quaker organizations, Friends Place on Capitol Hill and the FCNL Education Fund. The views expressed in this commentary do not necessarily reflect those of Religion News Service.)