Outside the Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Broadview, more than four dozen ministers gathered to pray for the detainees inside — and the repentance of federal agents who arrested them — during a Friday morning worship service attended by a crowd of more than 200.
“In the name of all things holy and good, liberation must be attained. We left up a vision of compassion, mercy and love,” said the Rev. Jason Lydon of Second Unitarian Church of Chicago. “Mercy, we cry. Freedom, we seek. Justice, we demand.”
Clergy from different faiths hosted a liturgy or prayer service at the site each Friday during October, part of a growing movement of religious leader opposition to the Trump administration’s ongoing immigration crackdown. As the so-called Operation Midway Blitz enters its eighth week, local faith leaders have sharpened their rhetoric about the mass deportation mission, moving from supportive words for Chicago’s immigrant community to condemnation of the Department of Homeland Security’s tactics.
Chicago native Pope Leo XIV joined the chorus this week when, without specifically naming Chicago, he denounced the mistreatment of immigrants during an address. While nations have the right to protect their borders, “this should be balanced with the moral obligation to provide refuge,” the pontiff said.
“With the abuse of vulnerable migrants, we are not witnessing the legitimate exercise of national sovereignty, but rather serious crimes committed or tolerated by the state. Increasingly inhumane measures — even politically celebrated — are being adopted to treat these ‘undesirables’ as if they were trash and not human,” he added, according to the Holy See. “Christianity, on the other hand, refers to the God of love, who makes us all brothers and sisters and asks us to live as brothers and sisters.”
Locally, more than 250 local Christian clergy members across denominations recently signed an open letter condemning the increasingly aggressive tactics of ICE, which have gripped much of the Chicago area in fear.
The message, entitled “Jesus was tear gassed at Broadview,” references the often-tumultuous protests at the west suburban ICE facility, some culminating with federal agents deploying pepper balls, rubber bullets and canisters of tear gas at demonstrators. cq
The letter ends by calling on the Trump administration and ICE to repent.
“They can set aside their indifference and cruelty.… They can give up their pepper spray and rubber bullets,” the letter said. “They can choose not to do this, cross to the other side of the fence and join us for Communion.”
Chicago Cardinal Blase Cupich, who long championed immigrant rights, released a statement Tuesday affirming that “the church stands with migrants” and condemning the tactics being used to detain them.
“Families are being torn apart. Children are left in fear, and communities are shaken by immigration raids and detentions,” the statement said. “These actions wound the soul of our city.”
These strong words from the archbishop of Chicago and the pope came about a week after ICE agents were reportedly spotted outside St. Jerome Parish in Rogers Park during a Spanish-language Mass, spurring fear among parishioners.
“From what I’ve learned, it’s another example of tactics used to create fear and terror in people that’s unnecessary,” Cupich said during an interview with the Tribune. “It’s not only beneath the dignity of the people that are being hunted down. But it’s beneath the dignity of law enforcement.”
Cupich added that he’s always had tremendous respect for law enforcement officers who dedicate their lives to keeping the public safe and preserving order.
“I know that many of them would say they didn’t sign up for this kind of activity,” he said. “I would like them to examine themselves in terms of going back to the inspiration they had for going into law enforcement in the first place.”
Homeland Security officials said in a statement that “Border Patrol did not ‘target’ this church nor were enforcement actions taken at the church.”
In response to Cupich’s statement, DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said the immigration enforcement blitz is removing “vicious criminals from our communities, and it is keeping all Chicagoans, including his (parishioners), safe from criminal illegal alien violence.”
“DHS law enforcement in Chicago are doing what is good, right and lawful: arresting criminal illegal aliens with violent criminal histories including domestic battery, family violence, assault with a deadly weapon, DUI, and a litany of other horrific crimes,” she added.
Studies, however, have shown that many people arrested and detained as part of nationwide sweeps have been American citizens or had no criminal record.
Multiple clergy attempted to bring Holy Communion to detainees at Broadview earlier this month but were rebuffed by Homeland Security.
McLaughlin said the Broadview facility “was not able to accommodate visitors on such short notice, for their safety as well as that of detainees and staff, and due to the ensuing riots” there over the past month. Earlier this month, a federal judge in Chicago took issue with the Trump administration’s description of lawless protests outside Broadview, calling it “simply unreliable.”
To many local clergy, the denial of Holy Communion deprives detainees of a sacred rite as well as spiritual nourishment.
The Rev. Lucas Hergert sings during an interfaith prayer service led by the North Shore Unitarian Church outside of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement holding facility in Broadview on Oct. 24, 2025. (Stacey Wescott/Chicago Tribune)
“We pressed against the gates of the detention facility and demanded to be let in, in order to give it to detainees,” said the Rev. Lucas Hergert of North Shore Unitarian Church in north suburban Deerfield. “And we were denied.”
The minister, who co-authored the clergy letter and helped lead the service at Broadview on Friday, said he felt some trepidation when he began praying there a few weeks ago.
He noted a particularly troubling incident where Pastor David Black of First Presbyterian Church in Woodlawn was hit in the head with a pepper pellet fired by agents from the roof. The moment was captured on video, which showed Black falling to the ground and others offering him assistance.
Sarah Schroeder, of Chicago, sings during an interfaith prayer service led by the North Shore Unitarian Church outside of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement holding facility in Broadview on Oct. 24, 2025. (Stacey Wescott/Chicago Tribune)
Yet Hergert says his faith compels him to continue praying at the ICE facility.
“The clergy presence has only continued to grow. What’s happened at Broadview has really catalyzed a number of religious leaders,” he said. “It’s a wide continuum, from mainline to liberal to even some conservative ministers who are coming forward to say that what DHS is doing is absolutely antithetical to the Gospel.”
Holy Communion, pastoral care
A group of Protestant clergy held an interfaith service at the Broadview facility in early October. Then they attempted to bring Holy Communion inside to detainees, but were refused by DHS, Hergert recalled.
In mid-October, a Eucharistic procession of more than 1,000 Catholics and other Christians marched from St. Eulalia Catholic Church in Maywood to the Broadview facility, singing and praying in English and Spanish along the way. A smaller delegation of priests, nuns and laypeople attempted to bring Communion inside to detainees but were also turned away by DHS.
Dominican Sister Christin Tomy, left, serves Communion to members of a procession outside of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement processing facility in Broadview after eucharistic ministers, including Tomy, attempted to serve Holy Communion to detainees Oct. 11, 2025, during the Coalition for Spiritual and Public Leadership’s eucharistic procession. The procession marched from St. Eulalia Catholic Church in Maywood. (Dominic Di Palermo/Chicago Tribune)
“Of course the primary and horrendous evil in this situation is the detention and deportation itself. But also we see, in this moment, that those who are inside are being deprived of something that is so central to the identity — the cultural and religious identity — of many Catholics,” said the Rev. David Inczauskis, a Jesuit priest who serves on the clergy council of the Coalition for Spirituality and Public Leadership, which organized the procession. “The attempt at erasure is a more total one than we might imagine, in that it’s affecting even this level of people’s identities and spirits.”
A DHS official said the procession did not give the agency enough notice before coming.
When the Tribune asked about specific protocols for clergy to bring Communion or other pastoral care to detainees at Broadview, DHS said in a statement that “as ICE law enforcement has seen a surge in assaults, disruptions and obstructions to enforcement, including by politicians themselves, any requests to tour processing centers and field offices must be approved by the Secretary of Homeland Security.”
“Requests should be made with sufficient time to prevent interference with the President’s Article II authority to oversee executive department functions — a week is sufficient to ensure no intrusion on the President’s constitutional authority,” the statement added.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois is investigating reports that religious leaders have been blocked from providing spiritual care at Broadview and that detainees have been denied access to worship, among other complaints about conditions inside, said spokesperson Ed Yohnka.
“Like other principles they claim to revere, the Trump administration’s respect for religious liberty is transitory at best — something to be discarded when it interferes with their cruel political agenda,” he said in an email. “Nowhere is that clearer than at Broadview, which has become a de facto detention center for immigrants seized across the Chicagoland area. The Constitution does not stop at the gates of Broadview. The right to practice one’s faith without government interference applies to everyone, including those in immigration custody.”
‘We stand with you’
The Chicago cardinal, whose grandparents immigrated to the United States from Croatia, directly addressed undocumented immigrants in his recent statement.
“Most of you have been here for years. You have worked hard. You have raised families. You have contributed to this nation. You have earned our respect,” he said. “As the Archbishop of Chicago, I will insist that you be treated with dignity. Americans should not forget that we all come from immigrant families. You are our brothers and sisters. We stand with you.”
Cupich said he’s sometimes questioned about this immigration stance, with some noting that Catholics might be divided on the matter.
But he pointed to the repeated support for immigrants expressed by Pope Leo and the late Pope Francis.
While meeting with Chicago labor union leaders earlier this month, Pope Leo urged them to stand up for immigrants.
“While recognizing that appropriate policies are necessary to keep communities safe, I encourage you to continue to advocate for society to respect the human dignity of the most vulnerable,” he said.
Pope Francis had rebuked the Trump administration’s plans for mass deportations, calling them a “major crisis.” While nations have the right to defend themselves and keep their communities safe from criminals, the Holy Father stressed that this must be balanced with care for those who are oppressed or marginalized.
“That said, the act of deporting people who in many cases have left their own land for reasons of extreme poverty, insecurity, exploitation, persecution or serious deterioration of the environment, damages the dignity of many men and women, and of entire families, and places them in a state of particular vulnerability and defenselessness,” he said in a February letter to U.S. bishops.
Nationwide, many Catholic clergy have lambasted Trump’s hard-line immigration policies.
Amid ramped-up enforcement in September, Los Angeles Archbishop José Gomez said anxiety about potential raids had lowered church attendance as well as participation in programs and ministries geared at immigrants.
“People are really afraid of going out of their homes,” he said at the time. “A lot of the priests are telling me here in the archdiocese that at least 30% of the people attending Mass are not coming anymore.”
On Wednesday, Catholics across the country took part in pro-immigration actions for the event “One Church, One Family: Catholic Public Witness for Immigrants,” which was spearheaded by the Jesuits West Province.
Participants were encouraged to hold prayer vigils in front of immigration detention centers or pray the rosary while accompanying people to immigration court hearings.
A second similar event is scheduled for Nov. 13 on the feast day of St. Frances Xavier Cabrini, the patron saint of immigrants, who came in 1899 to Chicago, where she devoted her life to caring for those in need.
“As Catholics and people of deep faith, we reject the culture of fear and silence that dehumanizes, and we choose instead to stand with migrants,” the campaign’s website says.
As for the Chicago area, local clergy members say they’ll continue trying to offer pastoral care, as well as Holy Communion, to the people detained at Broadview.
The Coalition for Spirituality and Public Life plans to celebrate Mass outside of the ICE facility Nov. 1 and will attempt once again to bring the body and blood of Christ inside to detainees, Inczauskis said.
“We’re trying to practice our faith and that’s why we’re insisting,” the priest added. “The hope of Jesus Christ is what propels us to do what we do. … So we are not going to stop fighting.”
The Associated Press contributed.