Religious leaders denounced Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security for denying access to give Communion to immigrants detained at an Illinois facility over the weekend.
The Coalition for Spiritual and Public Leadership (CSPL), a nonprofit organization with Catholic and Christian roots, organized a mass next to the immigration processing center on All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day.
Organizers estimate about 2,000 people attended Saturday, as many prayed, sang and held signs in protest against ICE.
“Operation Midway Blitz has caused chaos and chaos in our city,” Michael Okińczyc-Cruz, executive director of CSPL, told ABC News, referring to the immigration crackdown in Chicago.
“It’s creating a lot of fear and trauma for many of the families that we work with and who are members of our coalition,” she said.
A crowd of parishioners, religious sisters and activists gather peacefully during a Eucharistic procession to the Broadview ICE facility, advocating for religious access for detained immigrants, in Illinois, United States, on November 1, 2025. (Photo by Jacek Boczarski/Anadolu via Getty Images)
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Okińczyc-Cruz said CSPL formally submitted a letter requesting access more than a week in advance and took numerous steps to have ministers give Communion to immigrants at the Broadview facility. This is the second time they have been denied entry since their first attempt on Oct. 11, he told ABC News.
“These days are symbolically important for us in the Catholic Church to honor the saints who came before us,” Okińczyc-Cruz said.
Katrina Thompson, mayor of Broadview, also sent a letter on his behalf to DHS and ICE requesting permission on October 22. According to Okińczyc-Cruz, the question remained unanswered.
ABC News reached out but did not receive an immediate response from DHS.
Sister JoAnn Persch is the president of Catherine’s Caring Cause, an organization that supports asylum seekers with legal, medical and housing needs. She and Chicago Auxiliary Bishop José María García-Maldonado led the delegation Saturday.
For nearly two decades, Persch and the late Sister Pat Murphy prayed for immigrants outside the center, he said. A completely different scene emerged on Saturday: Leaders were not allowed to walk to the building, he told ABC News.
“We never saw an ICE officer, except when they kept walking down the street during mass,” Persch said.
A crowd of parishioners, religious sisters and activists gather peacefully during a Eucharistic procession to the Broadview ICE facility, advocating for religious access for detained immigrants, in Illinois, United States, on November 1, 2025.
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Some members interpreted this as an intimidation tactic, according to Okińczyc-Cruz.
Okińczyc-Cruz said federal agents passed by “about a dozen times.”
After speaking with Illinois State Police, an officer called a Broadview Center supervisor, who told him they couldn’t enter for security reasons, Persch told ABC News.
“My thought afterwards was, ‘Whose safety?’ “I was in that building for 10 years, it was never a serious threat to me,” he said.
Also alarming to Persch is the violation of immigrants’ religious rights, he said.
“The most disconcerting thing is the fact that those men and women who are in there deserve pastoral care, they deserve to be nourished by the Communion,” he said.
Dan Greenstone was among those in attendance. “My conscience has been shocked by what I heard from neighbors and friends in the Chicago area,” he told ABC News.
He said immigration policies “are being applied in an extremely cruel, reckless and violent manner.” and expressed concern that clergy were being denied access to the facilities.
Greenstone said he is not Catholic, but was moved by the Mass, calling it “a beautiful ceremony.”
He described seeing people dressed in Day of the Dead costumes, flowers and music as a “contrast of that shared humanity with the barbed wire, tactical vehicles and weapons.”
Okińczyc-Cruz told ABC News that the nonprofit plans to request a meeting again and submit another request to offer communion to people inside the Broadview facility. He stressed that without that opportunity, officials are “infringing on people’s religious freedom and religious liberty.”
“It’s like the parable of the persistent widow. We have to keep going back, going back and going back, persistently, without violence, but we are not going to give up,” he said.
