Author: Heather Schlitz

BRODVIEW, Ill. — For the first time in six years, two priests and a nun were escorted by police through razor wire and concrete barriers into a Chicago-area immigration facility to offer communion and ashes to detainees after a judge ordered religious leaders to enter.

Catholic priest Paul Keller recounted the shocked and tearful faces of migrants at the facility on Ash Wednesday. Keller, whose hands were stained black from spreading the ashes, described it as a bittersweet moment after a months-long court battle to gain access to the facility to serve detainees.

According to the Alliance for Spiritual and Public Leadership, clergy have not been at the Broadview facility west of Chicago since the start of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020.

“We’re dealing with what should be a very non-controversial issue, which is to pray for people who are in custody and provide them with some comfort,” Keller told Reuters. “Unfortunately, this happened because of a lawsuit.”

Last fall, the Trump administration conducted a months-long operation known as the “Midway Blitz,” in which armed and masked federal agents fanned out across Chicago and its suburbs to detain immigrants the government accused of threatening the safety of Americans. Agents fired tear gas into residential areas, arrested protesters, used Tasers on people during violent detentions, pointed guns at residents and shot two people, one of whom died.

Many of the more than 4,200 people DHS said were detained were crammed into the Broadview facility for processing, sometimes sleeping on the floor of overflowing restrooms, the plaintiffs said in the lawsuit.

Protesters have gathered outside the facility for months, chanting slogans and expletives to the staccato sound of pepper balls and tear gas grenades being fired by immigration agents as they hit the ground. On Wednesday, there was silence except for the sound of worshipers praying the rosary and singing hymns.

On Ash Wednesday, people smear ashes in the shape of a cross on their foreheads as a symbol of repentance, and the holiday marks the beginning of Lent.

“We have not forgotten them”

Pope Leo and other Catholic leaders, who grew up outside Chicago, have become staunch supporters of immigrant rights during a crackdown by U.S. President Donald Trump, and Chicago Archbishop Blas Cupich delivered an impassioned homily at a nearby church emphasizing the humanity of immigrants.

“God doesn’t need documents to know where you are or who you are,” Cupich said. “He sees you when you cry secretly. He sees you when you work hard for your children when no one is watching. He sees you when you sacrifice your own comfort to send money home.”

After the priests and nuns left the Broadview facility, thousands gathered for Mass carrying rosary beads, pro-immigration signs and candles.

It followed the same structure as any Catholic Mass, with Bible readings, loud singing by thousands of attendees and wisps of incense, but it also included prayers for immigrant families, special blessings for loved ones in detention and petitions for the souls of Silverio Villegas Rodriguez, Renee Goode and Alex Pretty, three people killed by federal immigration agents in recent months.

“It lets immigrants and people in Broadview know they are not alone and we have not forgotten them,” said Kamila Chavez, a Loyola University Chicago student who attended the event.

The Reverend David Black, pastor of Chicago Presbyterian Church, said entering the facility marked a victory for residents who have been harmed by immigration agents. He was pepper-sprayed and shot in the head with a pepper ball by federal agents in Broadview in October. On February 13, a judge ruled that preventing religious leaders from entering the facility was a burden on them in exercising their religious rights.

“Ash Wednesday is a day when we remember that we have been dust and to dust we will return,” Rev. Black said. “On this day Christians remember that the empires of this world rose from ashes and fell back into ashes.”

This article was generated from automated news agency feeds without modifications to the text.