“As ICE and Border Patrol resume aggressive operations in the Chicago area this week, the Broadview detention center is expected to fill once again with individuals torn from their families,” a press release from the faith-based nonprofit Coalition for Spiritual & Public Leadership stated. 

The advisory, released Dec. 19, announced that the faith leaders plan to once again seek access to the processing center in Broadview, Ill., to bring the Eucharist to detainees on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day. 

Advocates gathered outside the ICE field office in Chicago on Dec. 19 in sub-zero temperatures to deliver a written request for access to federal officials, continuing an ongoing struggle to minister to those held at the facility.

ICE first denied members of a eucharistic procession organized by C.S.P.L. from entering the facility on Oct. 11. Dan Hartnett, S.J., David Inczauskis, S.J., and others sought to provide Communion to and pray with detainees inside, but federal authorities denied them entry, citing undefined “safety” concerns.

“C.S.P.L. has repeatedly requested permission to enter the Broadview ICE facility to offer pastoral care and Holy Communion, including formal requests submitted on October 24, October 30, and November 6. None have received a response,” representatives of C.S.P.L. said in the statement.

“Officials allege that it suddenly became too dangerous for clergy and women religious to visit the detention center,” Father Hartnett said in a separate press release. “But in reality the only danger was to their false claims about arresting the ‘worst of the worst.’”

“Perhaps they don’t want to allow us in because they know the conditions inside are inhumane and they know we would denounce that,” Father Inczauskis noted in the press release.

“Our request is so simple, to do something the Catholic Church does every day. We are united in Christ. We will not stop denouncing the evil of detention and deportation. We cannot be silent in the face of oppression,” he said.

The Christmas visitation effort follows multiple attempts to minister to detainees during a months-long swell of immigration enforcement activity.

Operation Midway Blitz, the Department of Homeland Security-led mass deportation effort in Chicago and its surrounding suburbs, began on the first weekend of September and continued until early November when Border Patrol Commander Gregory Bovino left the area for other operations.

The Chicago Tribune reported that D.H.S. officials made over 4,300 arrests over the two-month period. “Most detainees do not have significant criminal records,” according to the report.

While immigration enforcement actions waned in the wake of Mr. Bovino’s exit, a standing force of Border Patrol and ICE officials remained in the city, according to The Chicago Tribune. 

Mr. Bovino and “a throng of masked federal agents” briefly returned to Chicago on Dec. 16. His subsequent departure on Dec. 18 “was followed by a noticeable decrease in immigration enforcement activity,” The Chicago Tribune reported.

C.S.P.L. filed a lawsuit on Nov. 20 following federal immigration officials’ denial of multiple attempts to bring the Eucharist to detainees at the processing center in Broadview.

In addition to the C.S.P.L. complaint, an emergency class-action lawsuit was filed against ICE and D.H.S. on Oct. 31 on behalf of detainees at the Broadview facility, alleging “inhumane and unlawful conditions,” according to the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois.

As a result, on Nov. 5, a federal judge issued a temporary restraining order to address the “serious conditions demonstrated to exist” at the Broadview facility. The order required the government to provide detainees with adequate bedding, food and water. 

The MacArthur Justice Center, co-counsel in the suit with the A.C.L.U., included testimony from detainees about conditions inside the facility. 

“The officers treated us terribly. They used obscenities and insults against us. When we asked for necessities of life, they would insult us or ignore us. They often laughed at detainees and made light of our suffering,” one detainee said. “The conditions at Broadview were devastating for me.” 

“At one point I thought that I would rather die than have to stay there any longer. People detained at Broadview are desperate,” the former detainee said.

The Chicago Tribune reports that U.S. District Judge Robert Gettleman said the processing site “has really become a prison.” He added that conditions at Broadview “would be found unconstitutional even in the context of prisons holding convicted felons, but these are not convicted felons. These are civil detainees.”

The Rev. Larry Dowling, a retired priest from the Archdiocese of Chicago, told the National Catholic Reporter that C.S.P.L. organizers were considering legal action after the first time they were denied entry to Broadview, but organizers held off until after their second attempt was turned back following an All Saints’ Day People’s Mass on Nov. 1.

“Despite the long history of religious access to the Broadview detention center…recent months have brought shifting, contradictory and often opaque communication from D.H.S. and ICE officials. Faced with this lack of honesty and transparency, we were left with no choice but to file this lawsuit,” Michael Okińczyc-Cruz, C.S.P.L’s executive director, said in a press release. 

The All Saints’ Day effort was preceded by a formal request submitted a week in advance to federal authorities. Despite support from Broadview Mayor Katrina Thompson and C.S.P.L.’s endeavors to comply with D.H.S. requirements as reported by The Chicago Tribune, ICE again cited “safety and security concerns and the transitory nature” of the Broadview facility in denying the nonprofit’s request, according to the complaint.

The complaint alleges that these denials violated the free expression rights of the plaintiffs, which include C.S.P.L., Mr. Okińczyc-Cruz, Fathers Dowling and Hartnett, among others. No detainees are listed as plaintiffs.

The defendants in the case are the D.H.S., the U.S. Department of Justice, President Donald Trump and other high-ranking federal officials, according to the complaint.

Citing the free exercise clause of the First Amendment, the Religious Freedom Restoration Act and the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act, attorneys Tom Geoghegan and Patrick Dahlstrom argue that the defendants’ freedom of religion includes the right to minister at the Broadview facility. 

The suit denies that a necessary “compelling governmental interest in safety and security” was present for restricting the plaintiffs’ rights to exercise their religion. It further alleges that in denying access to the facility outright, the government failed to take the “least restrictive means” necessary to protect a potential interest, as required by the R.F.R.A.

The complaint also references remarks from Pope Leo XIV about the importance of allowing pastoral workers to provide spiritual care to detainees.

While the lawsuit to establish regular access to the facility for spiritual care is pending, C.S.P.L. seeks, in the near term, to be able to reach detainees during the holiday season.

“Christmas, the celebration of the birth of Christ, is a central feast of the Christian faith and a moment of particular importance for prayer, hope, and consolation—especially for those who are confined, separated from family, and experiencing fear or uncertainty,” the C.S.P.L. press release stated.

“The opportunity to receive pastoral care and Holy Communion on this holy day carries deep spiritual meaning for detained persons.”

Edward Desciak is an O'Hare Fellow at America Media.