Do federal immigration agents make arrests at churches? Depends on what day you ask.

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WASHINGTON (RNS) — Earlier this month, Tom Homan, who serves as the Trump administration’s border czar, stood in front of the White House and insisted that federal immigration agents have not arrested anyone on the grounds of a house of worship.

“No one has been arrested at a church,” he said , going on to repeat the claim two more times.

But last week, lawyers for the Department of Homeland Security appeared to directly contradict Homan in court. In a little-noticed document filed in a case brought against the federal government by a group of religious organizations, a DHS official described an incident where Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents chased someone into the parking lot of New Hope Lutheran Church in Agoura Hills, California, in July. The person was then arrested. While DHS said the officers didn’t see signage indicating they were entering church property, the disconnect between Homan’s rhetoric and DHS’s legal claims adds to a long-simmering debate over immigration enforcement operations in and around churches.

For more than a year, pastors and other faith leaders have…