Judge grants injunction for clergy ministry in Minneapolis ICE facility

Clergy members will now be allowed in to give spiritual care to those being detained at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement processing facility in the Twin Cities area.

On March 20, U.S. District Judge Jerry Blackwell granted an injunction allowing access to the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building in Minneapolis, following a lawsuit filed in February by an ecumenical group of Minnesota clergy, including a Jesuit priest. The Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building is named for Minnesota’s first Episcopal bishop.

Blackwell said plaintiffs had met the burden of proof that their case is likely to succeed, and that restrictions on the religious freedom of clergy to minister causes “irreparable harm.” He also ordered both sides to meet within four days to negotiate details over access and security, and within seven days submit a plan or, if an agreement cannot be met, submit competing proposals.

Federal officials have cited security and safety concerns in denying visitor admission to the building, but clergy have countered that the government has not provided clear, reasonable protocols for admission. (Immigrants have reportedly been held at the ICE holding facility longer than the typical 12 hours or so for processing, according to the lawsuit).

The lawsuit, filed Feb. 23 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota, stated, “By prohibiting faith leaders from providing essential pastoral care to individuals in ICE detention, the federal government unconstitutionally obstructs their sacred obligation to exercise their faith through ministry to community members in the greatest need of spiritual comfort.”

Claimants said their First Amendment right to practice religion freely and rights under the Religious Freedom and Restoration Act were violated. They sought an injunction against being barred by the federal government and said their inability to minister under these rights has caused “irreparable injury.”

“This ministry is not political advocacy. It is not symbolic presence. It is a core and non-negotiable religious obligation rooted in Scripture and centuries of practice,” the plaintiffs said in their lawsuit.

The filing listed instances in December, January and February when faith leaders of the Minneapolis Area Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, the Minnesota Conference of the United Church of Christ and Jesuit Father Chris Collins, parochial administrator of St. Peter Claver Catholic Church in St. Paul, Minnesota, tried to provide pastoral care in the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building but were stopped.

Father Collins previously told OSV News that on the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, Dec. 12, he, “an auxiliary bishop and a group of parishioners” from various locations had learned about a Catholic school student whose mother had been “swept up and taken” to the ICE facility in the Whipple building, and gathered for a spontaneous prayer service.

“They actually not only didn’t let us go into the building, but wouldn’t even let us on the property and pushed us across the street,” said Father Collins.

In the lawsuit, Father Collins is also listed as having attempted to enter Whipple Feb. 23, the day of its filing, to provide pastoral care, but he was denied.

The federal government in early December began its targeted deployment of several thousand ICE agents to pursue people without legal authorization to remain in the country in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area, known as “Operation Metro Surge.” Two people were shot and killed by ICE agents in separate incidents and multiple violent clashes between protesters and federal agents ensued, with federal officials announcing scaling back and troop drawdowns in mid-February.

Eight in 10 migrants arrested in the ongoing immigration crackdown across the country are Christian, the majority of them Catholic, according to a joint Catholic-evangelical report published by World Relief.

OSV News correspondent Simone Orendain contributed to this report.

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