(RNS) \u2014 In video recorded on Friday (Nov. 14) outside the embattled U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Broadview, Illinois, the Rev. Michael Woolf stands alongside fellow protesters, fiddling awkwardly with his backpack as faith leaders and other protesters chant slogans at a line of police officers. A moment later, one officer can be seen walking forward, grabbing Woolf by the wrist and yanking.<\/p>\n
Demonstrators attempted to hold on to Woolf, who was wearing a clerical collar, but four officers wrenched him from the crowd and tossed him to the ground. After turning him onto his stomach, officers proceeded to arrest Woolf, and removed him to the Cook County Sheriff\u2019s Office in Maywood, Illinois.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve got bruises all over my body,\u201d Woolf, an American Baptist minister who is pastor of Lake Street Church<\/a> of Evanston, Illinois, told Religion News Service. He was speaking in his first interview since being released Friday afternoon after about seven hours in custody.<\/p>\n Woolf said when he asked the arresting officers to loosen the plastic handcuffs that were causing his hands to go numb, an officer replied: \u201cNobody wants to talk to you \u2014 shut the f\u2013k up.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s part of the dehumanizing nature of it, and it\u2019s it gives me a lot of clarity around what\u2019s happening here,\u201d said Woolf, who has been active<\/a> in protests against ICE. \u201cIt\u2019s really a spiritual emergency.\u201d<\/p>\n Footage<\/a> and images<\/a> of Woolf\u2019s arrest were shared widely on the internet on Friday, drawing attention to the demonstration at the ICE facility, where protests have become commonplace in recent weeks. Organizers said at least 100 faith leaders of various faiths and denominations came to the Broadview facility, providing a climax to religious pushback to \u201cOperation Midway Blitz,\u201d a mass deportation effort that has rounded up hundreds of undocumented immigrants and other Chicago residents since it was launched in September. Recent reports<\/a> say that many immigration agents who have been operating in the city, particularly U.S. Border Patrol officers, are being transferred to Charlotte, North Carolina.<\/p>\n Cook County Police said 21 people were arrested at the demonstration, all but one of whom were charged with \u201cObstruction\/Disorderly Conduct\/Pedestrian Walking on Highways.\u201d Participants said at least seven of those arrested were faith leaders from Presbyterian, Lutheran, Baptist, Unitarian Universalist, and Jewish traditions.<\/p>\n The Department of Homeland Security\u2019s X feed seemed to mock the protest participants in an X post on Friday<\/a>, saying, \u201cWomp womp, cry all you want. These criminal illegal aliens aren\u2019t getting released.\u201d<\/p>\n The post called the demonstrators \u201cviolent rioters\u201d and \u201cimbecilic morons\u201d who need to \u201cget a job.\u201d<\/p>\n Asked about the DHS statement, Woolf said he and other protesters were \u201cdemanding constitutional and due process rights\u201d for detainees, adding, \u201cI believe that justice will come in this life or the next.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI know which side I choose. I choose the gospel,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is our job,\u201d said the Rev. Kristina Sinks, a United Methodist pastor who helped organize a worship service, in reply to the DHS post. Sinks also rejected the suggestion that demonstrators were violent. She later explained via text message that she believes it is the job of clergy to \u201cadvocate for the oppressed, the vulnerable, and those dehumanized by any forces of evil and oppression.\u201d<\/p>\n Sinks added: \u201cWhy does DHS feel threatened by clergy praying? What are they hiding?\u201d<\/p>\n In a statement sent to RNS Saturday evening, DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin dismissed inquiries about remarks from Woolf and Sinks as a \u201cridiculous line of questioning.\u201d She then insisted that \u201cyou can clearly see rioters attacking police\u201d in \u201cthe video.\u201d McLaughlin did not specify which video she was referring to.<\/p>\n \u201cWe will always condemn lawlessness and violence against our law enforcement,\u201d McLaughlin said. \u201cWe urge faith leaders across the country to do the same.\u201d<\/p>\n Organizers called the protest one of the largest in a series of demonstrations at the Broadview site, many of which have been led by religious leaders, who that federal authorities are mistreating the detainees at the facility. The treatment of the detainees is the subject of an ongoing class-action lawsuit.<\/p>\n Sinks said faith leaders began Friday with a multi-faith service outside the Broadview facility to \u201cbear witness to the suffering inside the facility.\u201d The participants held daily hygiene products, bread, and clean water to \u201csymbolize needs not met\u201d by the government agents who run the facility.<\/p>\n Faith leaders from various traditions \u2014 Christian, Jewish, Hindu and others \u2014 then presented police with a letter from clergy offering spiritual care to the detainees. Organizers, Sinks said, sent DHS an identical letter a week before.<\/p>\n Offers of pastoral care and Communion for detainees at the facility have been offered multiple times, only to be rebuffed, as they were on Friday. Religious leaders have raised the issue as a religious freedom concern, with U.S. Catholic bishops, backed by comments by Pope Leo XIV, condemning authorities for depriving detainees of sacraments \u2014 something some religious leaders have been allowed to do in the past<\/a>.<\/p>\n After clergy were denied access again on Friday, video footage<\/a> from the protest posted on social media showed Woolf and other faith leaders attempting to approach the facility, marching arm-in-arm. The demonstrators were quickly mobbed by police, who began pushing them back. A short time later, police began arresting demonstrators.<\/p>\n Several faith leaders at the demonstration expressed shock at the intensity of the police response. The Rev. Quincy Worthington, a Presbyterian Church (USA) minister who has been active in protests against ICE and was in the crowd on Friday, said he tried to help up people who had fallen or pushed down who were \u201cbeing crushed or beaten.\u201d<\/p>\n Similarly, the Rev. Hannah Kardon, a United Methodist minister who had thrown to the ground and arrested<\/a> at a previous demonstration in Broadview, said in a text message that she saw \u201coverwhelming and unnecessary violence\u201d from \u201cmultiple police forces\u201d at the facility.<\/p>\n \u201cI saw knees on necks,\u201d she wrote. \u201cI saw people pulled and dragged. I saw people slammed to the ground. Faith leaders were brutalized today for wanting to offer spiritual care to their stolen neighbors. It was horrific.\u201d<\/p>\n Clergy have been vocal critics of \u201cOperation Midway Blitz\u201d since it began and said they have been repeatedly been met with force by federal, state and local police forces. At least five local clergy, including Woolf, Kardon and Worthington, say they have been shot with pepper balls fired by Department of Homeland Security forces. Footage of agents shooting the Rev. David Black, a Presbyterian minister from Chicago, in the head with pepper balls was widely shared on social media<\/a>.<\/p>\n As state and local police have become the main force guarding the facility in recent weeks, activists have accused Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, a critic of Trump and his mass deportation policies, of protecting ICE agents.<\/p>\n