Pastoral care is finally allowed inside Chicago-area ICE facility — on Ash Wednesday

CHICAGO (OSV News) — After months of trying, religious and clergy were finally able to enter the processing center for migrants without papers on the outskirts of Chicago on Ash Wednesday, Feb. 18. They gave Communion and distributed ashes to those inside.

The Department of Homeland Security complied with a federal judge’s Feb. 12 order to allow members of the Chicago-based Coalition for Spiritual and Public Leadership, or CSPL, to give pastoral care inside the Broadview facility about 12.5 miles west of Chicago.

It was a clear, sunny, wind-swept afternoon, when the tiny procession of Claretian Father Paul Keller, Scalabrini Father Leandro Fossá and Society of Helpers Sister Alicia Gutierrez escorted by Illinois state troopers and local police made its way down a blocked off stretch to the entrance of the Broadview facility. Their confreres, men and women religious from other orders along with diocesan clergy and a Lutheran pastor, saw them off with a blessing, hands outstretched.

After an hour and a half, they emerged from the facility and made their way to a media holding area, where they told reporters they gave Communion and ashes to the four detainees inside and also to three facility personnel.

Father Keller’s palms were covered in ash.

“This is the body of Christ, bringing the body of Christ to the body of Christ,” the provincial superior of the Claretians’ USA-Canada province told the group. “And in this moment, that body is broken, and it’s hurting. And I feel as if, in a certain sense … representing a society with dirty hands, actually asking for the forgiveness of those who are being detained, as opposed to encouraging them to repent of their sins … that is an ongoing task.”

Father Fossá described the four people they ministered to, who had just been brought into the detention area, about an hour after the trio arrived.

“You saw the crying eyes, the confusion, uncertainty. But also you could see that they’re responsive. They could see that the church was there with them,” he said.

Father Fossá later told OSV News that at Broadview the Chicago-based Mexican consul general had met the three men and one woman. The priest said the four did not say much during the Ash Wednesday service but simply responded to the prayers. He described them all as young adults, whom he said would have a chance to start over.

But he cautioned, “We don’t know if they have a place to go back to. Sometimes when they come over, it’s the last opportunity.”

The temporary injunction ordered by U.S. District Judge Robert W. Gettleman compelled U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials to open the doors of the facility to the religious workers, specifically on Ash Wednesday. It stated, “Plaintiffs have lost their religious freedom by blanket denial of any opportunity to provide spiritual consolation.”

Gettleman said in the order that after the Ash Wednesday visit, the two sides should also work toward regular pastoral visits and prayers just outside the facility.

An attorney who filed the Nov. 19 lawsuit on behalf of CSPL, priests and a religious sister, pointed out to OSV News this was done on a regular basis for nearly two decades until the Trump administration’s sweeping immigration crackdown — called “Operation Midway Blitz” in Chicago — started last year.

During the fall, the surge in Chicago of rounding up and detaining those without legal authorization to remain in the country dealt a heavy blow that resulted in hundreds of arrests and numerous detentions. Media reports described an overcrowded Broadview where detainees remained far longer than the 12-hours it typically takes for processing. And its doorstep, where a weekly rosary group prayed for detainees, became a flashpoint for clashes between ICE agents and swells of protesters.

Eight in 10 migrants arrested in the immigration crackdown across the country are Christian, the majority of them Catholic, according to a joint Catholic-evangelical report published by World Relief. The report found 18% of Catholics are either vulnerable to deportation or live with someone who is.

Attorney Patrick Dahlstrom said that with the lull in ICE operations in Chicago as the government focuses on other cities around the country, his team has had “good discussions” with the government and he was hopeful they would be able to work something out with ICE personnel to have the regular visits.

The pastoral visit to Broadview was immediately followed by a Mass on the grounds of Father Fossá’s parish, Our Lady of Mount Carmel in nearby Melrose Park suburb. Cardinal Blase J. Cupich of Chicago, a vocal advocate for immigrants, presided over the Mass along with nearly two dozen priests.

The cardinal’s homily — delivered in English then Spanish — to an estimated 3,500 faithful under the cloudless evening sky that highlighted a sharp sliver of moon, referred to the Gospel reading of Jesus telling his disciples to give alms, pray and fast unnoticed.

“God does not need papers to know where you are, or who you are,” said Cardinal Cupich. “When you cry in secret, he sees you. When you work hard for your children, while no one is watching, he sees you. When you sacrifice your own comfort, to send money back home. When you sacrifice to give alms in secret, he sees you. The world may look at your legal status. But God looks at your heart.”

He also said it was a day for people who are treated like dust, “that can be swept away or treated as if they do not belong.”

Alluding to the ashes that would be distributed shortly after the homily, he said, “This mark is more permanent than any government identity or record. It is a seal that says, you belong to Jesus Christ. It is a reminder that you are citizens of a homeland that has no borders.”

The cardinal marked foreheads with crosses of black ash first to those whose family members and loved ones had been arrested by ICE agents.

After the Mass, the prelate, followed by priests, deacons, religious sisters, seminarians and novices among the rest of the faithful led a square mile, candlelit procession around the church. Many carried signs saying, “This the body of Christ,” among Scripture verses.

Our Lady of Mount Carmel parishioner Maria Lopez prayed the rosary while processing. She told OSV News in Spanish that in her laundry service job she knows many people who were taken by ICE agents.

Lopez, a Melrose Park resident of 25 years, called the cardinal’s homily “very beautiful” and said for her the message was “the entire Catholic Church.”

“It was beautiful, for all the people who attended (the Mass and procession). I felt more protected after hearing it,” she said.

At the end of “a very emotional day,” Michael Okinczyc-Cruz, executive director of CSPL, told OSV News, “And today was an incredible testimony to the power of grassroots communities, faith communities, clergy, sisters, laypeople, who are working together, to bring God’s love and justice and compassion to the places where we need to see it most in our world.”

Okinczyc-Cruz cited Father Fossá’s description of those who were detained.

“That our ministers could encounter them in this moment of existential despair is a testament to God’s grace and this miracle,” he said.

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