After months of denied attempts, a lawsuit and activism by faith and local leaders, members of the Coalition for Spiritual and Public Leadership finally gained entry to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement processing center in Broadview, Ill., on Ash Wednesday.

The visit to the Broadview facility, located on the outskirts of Chicago, was made possible by a federal injunction from Judge Robert Gettleman on Feb. 12 that required immigration authorities “to meet and confer” with C.S.P.L. leaders to discuss future plans for meeting with detainees and prayer services outside the Broadview facility.

Three delegates from C.S.P.L. entered the ICE facility on Feb. 18 to provide pastoral care, ashes and Communion to four detainees.

Leandro Fossá, C.S., was one of the delegates who entered the facility. He spoke with America about the experience of meeting the detainees.

“You could feel in their eyes that they know that’s it; they’re going back,” he said. “They have to start all over. You could see the tears in their eyes and the uncertainty of the future.”

“At the same time,” he said, “we brought hope. They were surprised to see us there. We brought the presence of the Lord and a beacon of hope in that moment.”

The detainees arrived at the “otherwise empty facility” an hour after the delegation arrived. They had been detained earlier that day. While the group was “not able to exchange more than a few words with” the detainees, they were able to distribute ashes and Communion.

Father Fossá said that they met the detainees in a visitation area separate from the broader holding area and spoke through an open-air window. A representative from the Mexican consulate was also present, as is the norm, according to Father Fossá, to figure out the logistics of their impending deportation. He believed that the four detainees were all Mexican citizens and said that they were “in shock,” so they did not have an extensive conversation or accept the opportunity to give confessions.

The delegation’s visit went smoothly, and Father Fossá noted that the security staff who run the facility were “very kind” and “very gentle.” He said that they appeared to “do their job in a very humane way” and even welcomed the opportunity to work with the faith leaders to “create a relationship with the community” and arrange connections with detainees’ families. 

Three or four of the security staff also approached the delegation and asked to receive ashes, a request that Father Fossá granted. An ICE official escorted the detainees. Father Fossá said he looks forward to continuing a dialogue with federal officials to ensure that faith leaders will be able to provide pastoral care at Broadview on a weekly basis.

“It was a very good beginning,” Father Fossá said. “There was no tension. We felt welcomed. So if this continues, I think we could establish a ministry that will be very beneficial to the families.”

The Broadview processing center is operated directly by ICE, unlike some detention facilities across the country that are privately owned and managed. The Broadview center does employ some private contractors as security officers to assist internal operations.

Conditions in the Broadview facility had previously come under fire during the height of Operation Midway Blitz, the Department of Homeland Security surge of immigration enforcement into the Chicago area during the fall. Following an emergency class-action lawsuit filed against ICE and D.H.S. on Oct. 31 that alleged “inhumane and unlawful conditions,” a federal judge issued a temporary restraining order to address the “serious conditions demonstrated to exist” at the Broadview facility.

In the wake of that decision, D.H.S. Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin released a statement denying allegations of poor treatment within the facility.

Immigration enforcement operations have scaled back in Chicago since December, but that may change soon.

“There are still raids and ICE operations being conducted in Chicago,” Michael Okińczyc-Cruz, C.S.P.L’s executive director, told America. “They’re not as intensive as they were during the height of Operation Midway Blitz. However, we’ve noted that the Department of Homeland Security, at one point…expressed publicly that they plan to return to Chicago with fourfold numbers” in March. So while the Broadview facility is currently mostly empty, it may not remain so for long.

He said that C.S.P.L. is leveraging its community relationships and listening to community members in preparation for the potential March surge.

A couple miles away at Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Church in Melrose Park, Ill., a Scalabrinian parish with a significant immigrant population led by Father Fossá, Chicago archbishop Cardinal Blase Cupich delivered a powerful pro-immigrant message to more than 3,500 worshippers just an hour after Father Fossá’s meeting with detainees.

Father Fossá recognized that hard times may lie ahead and acknowledged that some members of his congregation “have to be on watch,” restricting their movement for fear of apprehension by immigration enforcement.

“It might sound weird,” he added, “but our community is not afraid.” While their parents remain under a kind of siege, “the sons and daughters of immigrants,” he said, no longer feel like they are “alone in this battle.” 

Father Fossá said that the Catholic Church’s strong support for migrants, exemplified by the presence of Cardinal Cupich at his parish, made an enormous difference.

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

After the Mass at Our Lady of Mt. Carmel, Cardinal Cupich, followed by priests, deacons, religious sisters, seminarians and novices among the rest of the faithful led a candlelit procession around the church. Many participants carried signs saying, “This the body of Christ.”

“The church is very clear with the message from the bishops and the pope that we stand together with our people,” Father Fossá said. “And yes, it is difficult, but part of being the church is pursuing justice and human dignity.”

With reporting from OSV News

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