Religious leaders’ request to give communion to detainees at Broadview facility is denied again

A group of religious leaders tried once again Saturday to provide Holy Communion to detainees in the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement processing facility in Broadview and were turned away a second time, three weeks after a similar request was denied.

The Coalition for Spiritual and Public Leadership organized the Mass — which fell on All Saints Day, a Christian holiday to celebrate saints and a holy day of obligation for Catholics — with hopes to gain entry to the ICE facility to offer detainees communion. Organizers said they followed Department of Homeland Security protocol and formally requested access more than one week ahead of the Mass and emailed and hand-delivered a second letter on Thursday. The request was denied, according to a statement from the village of Broadview. No reason was given.

In a statement to the Sun-Times, a DHS spokesperson said any request to tour its facilities must be approved by DHS Secretary Kristi Noem and that requests “should be made with sufficient time to prevent interference” with the president’s authority to oversee executive department functions.

“A week is sufficient to ensure no intrusion on the president’s constitutional authority,” the DHS spokesperson said, not elaborating on why Saturday’s request was denied despite more than a week’s notice given. The spokesperson also noted increases in obstruction to immigration enforcement.

As the Catholic leaders conducted Mass outside the facility, federal immigration agents periodically drove past, at one point drawing some in the crowd to shout, “Shame!”

A small group of federal agents dressed in military uniforms stood chatting outside the boarded-up, brick facility as more than 1,000 people gathered in designated protest areas outside a nearby business for the Mass.

Two coach buses with tinted windows later left the detention center, but it wasn’t clear who it was carrying or where it was headed.

Michael Okińczyc-Cruz, the coalition’s executive director, said the group has made several attempts to speak with DHS and ICE officials but were turned down.

“We have tried to follow every channel possible that DHS and ICE publicly shares, but we’ve been denied time and time again,” Okińczyc-Cruz said. “We are here today to continue knocking on ICE’s doors, proclaiming that our sisters and brothers deserve their pastoral care and affirms their God-given dignity, and reminds us all that love is stronger than fear.”

Toward the end of the Mass, a few faith leaders, including Sister JoAnn Persch, walked toward the detention center to again request entry. They met with an Illinois State Police trooper, who called the facility to relay the request.

“The officer sincerely tried. The answer was no,” Persch told those gathered.

Joined by hundreds of people, the group previously attempted to provide communion to those inside the detention center on Oct. 11 and were denied. DHS eventually cited the need for a one-week notice.

Persch, 91, started visiting the ICE facility in Broadview with the late Sister Pat Murphy in 2006 to pray for the immigrants inside, their families and the ICE officers. Their visits inside the building later became a weekly practice, but their relationship with ICE frayed this year as President Donald Trump ramped up his deportation campaign in the Chicago area.

“It breaks my heart because we were allowed to go in … and pray and talk with them, work with the families. And now, they won’t even acknowledge us,” Persch told the Sun-Times.

She said she’s praying for the Trump administration to let up on its aggressive immigration enforcement tactics.

And she hopes to see the detention center shut down, pointing to dire conditions inside that were described in a lawsuit filed Friday by immigrants rights lawyers against the Trump administration’s top immigration enforcement officials on behalf of two men and everyone who’s been jailed in the facility.

The conditions detailed in the lawsuit, which were also previously reported by the Chicago Sun-Times and WBEZ, include overcrowding, poor food, no hygiene products or showers, lack of access to medical care and no access to lawyers.

“If that was an animal shelter, crowded with the filth that we hear is in there, it would be closed down,” Persch said. “It’s inhumane.”

She and Murphy had to build trust with previous presidential administrations to gain weekly access to the facility, but she has little hope of establishing trust with the current regime.

“You can’t even talk to anybody,” Persch said. “To build trust, you have to talk as human beings with respect and dignity, and certainly, the immigrants deserve that. And it’s just not happening, and it’s wrong.”

As people left the Mass, dozens of protesters dressed in Halloween costumes — inflatable animals, a xylophone, Jesus and more — descended onto the designated protest areas.

At least two protesters were seen being detained early in the afternoon as they tried blocking a Broadview police vehicle from exiting the facility.

As of 8 p.m. Saturday, four people were arrested, according to the Cook County Sheriff’s Office. They were facing charges of resisting arrest, disorderly conduct and disobeying a police officer.

Moments later, the crowd of protesters moved through Beach Street, outside the protest areas, holding large signs reading, “Free our neighbors” and “State police out of Broadview.”

They approached a line of state troopers holding batons, one of whom shot pepper balls at the protesters’ feet as they came within about 10 feet of the troopers.

Most of the protesters retreated as troopers, backed by federal agents in the distance, put on gas masks. A few lines of protesters remained close to the troopers, still holding the signs and chanting, “Whose streets? Our streets.”

The crowd moved forward again, causing a trooper to fire more pepper balls and leading to a skirmish in which the troopers pushed the protesters back with batons and took parts of the protesters’ large sign.

The standoff lasted until the protest curfew issued in an executive order by the Village of Broadview went into effect. Officers then pushed protesters back until the majority of the crowd dispersed.