A federal judge has ordered the Trump administration to allow Roman Catholic clergy members to minister to people at a detention center near Chicago on Ash Wednesday, after they had been denied access for months.
The order, issued on Thursday, came three months after the Coalition for Spiritual and Public Leadership, a Catholic advocacy group based in Illinois, and several Catholic clergy filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration, saying that immigration authorities had unlawfully blocked its members for months from providing pastoral care at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Broadview, Ill.
The judge, Robert W. Gettleman, issued a preliminary injunction that would allow clergy members to offer holy communion and ashes to detainees there on Ash Wednesday, which signals the beginning of Lent — the most important part of the year for the Roman Catholic Church.
Judge Gettleman noted in his decision that the Broadview detention center had allowed the Catholic group to make religious visitations for years before it reversed course relatively recently.
“With reasonable notice and communication, addressing legitimate security and safety concerns, allowing plaintiffs to provide pastoral care to migrants and detainees does not pose any undue hardship on the government,” the judge said.
The Catholic nonprofit welcomed the order in a statement on Friday, and said clergy members and Catholic nuns were prepared to offer communion and the ashes ritual to detained immigrants. Other members of the group will gather outside to support “the fundamental right to pastoral care and Communion,” the statement said.
“As Lent begins, we pray this ruling restores religious freedom for those detained and moves our country closer to justice in honoring the dignity of all migrants,” said Father Dan Hartnett, one of the clergy members listed as a plaintiff in the suit.
The group said it was still waiting for a final confirmation from the Department of Homeland Security regarding the logistics of complying with the court’s order, which also calls on the department to discuss with clergy members how they can continue providing religious services to detainees after Ash Wednesday.
The Department of Homeland Security, which includes ICE, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The court’s decision was a win for Catholic leaders, who have publicly criticized the administration’s deportation campaign, conditions in detention centers and the lack of access to pastoral care.
The ICE facility in Broadview became a symbol of the Trump administration’s crackdown on undocumented immigrants in Chicago, where federal agents made thousands of arrests in September, and where protesters and faith leaders clashed with law enforcement officers.
Catholic nuns and clergy had visited the facility for more than a decade, offering prayer services and holy communion to detainees every Friday during early morning visitor hours. But immigration authorities began rolling back that access in September, citing “safety and security concerns and the transitory nature” of the facility, according to the November lawsuit.
“The whole world has seen the injustices of our federal immigration system,” Father Leandro Fossá, a member of the nonprofit, said. “We are eager to see how the federal government responds to the injunction and restores the fundamental religious rights of people in detention to receive pastoral visits, rights that had been honored previously.”
Ashley Ahn covers breaking news for The Times from New York.
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