The Coalition for Spiritual and Public Leadership said the U.S. Department of Homeland Security used “shifting, contradictory, and often opaque communication” to deny clergy the ability to pray with detainees at the ICE facility in Broadview, including late immigrant activists Sister Pat Murphy and Sister JoAnn Persch.
The group attempted to provide communion for detainees at the facility in October as well as earlier this month, but were denied both times, with officials citing “safety and security concerns,” according to the lawsuit filed Wednesday in federal court. The group accused the government of violating federal law as well as the First Amendment rights of religious officials and detainees.
“A non-specific reference to safety and security is not sufficient to deny the rights of Catholic clergy and laypersons, or persons of any other denomination or religion, to practice their faith, especially as others have been allowed to do so at the ICE facility in Broadview since it became an immigration-related facility in 2006,” the lawsuit states. “The United States has a long history of accommodating such religious freedom and practice inside of prisons and jails, and there is no reason to deny them altogether at Broadview, where the vast majority of detainees have no criminal records.”
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Clergy were previously allowed to pray with detainees before they were bused to deportation flights as well as during the 4 a.m. to 6 a.m. family visitation hours the facility used to have, according to the lawsuit. Murphy and Persch would pray with detainees in the early hour mornings every Friday from 2010 to 2020, only stopping due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The visits then continued virtually.
Clergy began to pray the rosary on the steps of the facility again in 2022, which continued until an intense deportation campaign, called “Operation Midway Blitz,” began in September, after which masked agents disrupted the ceremony, according to the lawsuit.
After writing several letters and emails, and attempting to deliver them in person to the ICE field office in the Loop, representatives of the group got through to a federal representative on the phone, who told them, “There is no more prayer in front of [the] building or inside the building because this is the state and it’s not [of a] religious background,” according to the suit.
Other clergy have spoken out about their treatment by federal agents as well as state, county and local law enforcement outside the facility while continuing to draw attention to the poor conditions inside the facility that previous detainees have described in filings for ongoing litigation.
“Perhaps they don’t want to allow us in because they know the conditions inside are inhumane and they know we would denounce that,” said the Rev. David Inczauskis. “Our request is so simple, to do something the Catholic Church does every day. We are united in Christ. We will not stop denouncing the evil of detention and deportation. We cannot be silent in the face of oppression. We will persist until justice flows freely like a river.”
Sister JoAnn Persch, whose efforts are mentioned in the lawsuit, died unexpectedly last week, the Chicago Catholic reported.