Clergy offer Communion, ashes to detainees at Broadview ICE facility after court order

Catholic clergy provided Communion and ashes to detainees at the Broadview Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility in Illinois on Ash Wednesday after a federal judge ordered the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to grant them access.

On Ash Wednesday, Feb. 18, four detainees were present when two priests and a religious sister entered the facility at 3 p.m. Each of them — three men and one woman — received the ashes and took Communion.

All four communicants were detained earlier that day.

“You saw the crying eyes, confusion, uncertainty,” Father Leandro Fossá, CS, pastor of Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Melrose Park, Illinois, said in a news release. “You could also see they were responsive, so they felt the hope of the moment they could see the Church was there with them.”

The Ash Wednesday services at Broadview were facilitated by the Coalition for Spiritual and Public Leadership (CSPL), whose mission is rooted in liberation theology and focused on economic, environmental, racial, and social justice.

“The most important thing that happened today is that we were given the right to accompany people and provide them their religious rights,” Fossá said. “Everyone has the right to receive the visit of your pastor or spiritual adviser, whatever your religion may be. For immigrants especially, I know how important the Lord is. Today we represented their community.”

Fossá was joined at the facility by Father Provincial Paul Keller, CMF, and Sister Alicia Gutierrez, Society of Helpers.

Three guards also received ashes.

Last year, DHS repeatedly denied clergy access to Broadview when they requested entrance to administer the sacraments to detainees.

On Feb. 12, Judge Robert W. Gettleman ordered DHS to accommodate the clergy and warned officials that the repeated denials were a substantial burden on the free exercise of religion and that the government had no compelling interest to justify it.

The Broadview facility is an ICE field office used to process detainees before being transferred to a detention center. Although detainees are only meant to be held there for a few hours, with the maximum being 72 hours, some alleged last year that they were held there for several days and even up to one week during ICE’s Operation Midway Blitz, which detained about 3,000 immigrants illegally residing in the state.

A detainee testified he spent six days at the facility before the judge ordered bedding, three meals a day, free water, and hygiene products.

DHS encourages clergy to reach out to offer religious services at longer-term detention facilities but said at the time that it was not typical to provide the accommodations for facilities used for processing even though Chicago religious had frequently provided spiritual care in the past.

Cardinal Cupich celebrates Mass in solidarity with detainees

Cardinal Blase Cupich, the archbishop of Chicago, celebrated a Mass, which was also facilitated by CPSL, to show solidarity with detainees on Ash Wednesday.

More than 3,500 people attended the Mass, which was held at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church, according to CPSL. About 1,500 were inside the sanctuary and another 2,000 in the courtyard outside.

Some of the attendees were families who have loved ones who have been detained or have been deported. They were the first to receive ashes.

“Our immigrant friends know the fear of the knock at the door or the traffic stop,” Cupich said in the homily. “God does not need papers to know where you are or who you are — when you cry alone, he sees you.”

Cupich led a procession after the Mass.