The long-standing practice of Religious leaders minister to detained immigrants It has become more controversial — and consequential — as incarceration numbers have risen across the United States during the federal government Immigration campaign.
Clergy are demanding more access to detention centers, especially during the ongoing Lenten seasons Ramadan. After celebrating b Ash Wednesday service With four immigrants who have just arrived at a detention center near Chicago, clergy there are working with immigration authorities to organize regular visits.
At the beginning of Ramadan, a Muslim priest was allowed to visit two women detained for several months in an immigration detention center in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. She hopes to return throughout the month of fasting.
“In systems that are designed to be broken, it is very important that they not only get this care, but that they also get adequate care from someone who can help them understand their situation by bringing God in,” said Pastor Nasiba Mahmoud.
After months of contact at the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Prairieland Detention Center in Texas, she was allowed to bring dates for the women to break the fast during Ramadan as well as soft-covered Qurans.
But it took a lawsuit — one of two recently filed after clergy said they were denied access to Illinois and Minnesota — for a Catholic band to enter ICE facility in suburban Chicago From Broadview on Ash Wednesday.
“It’s an important victory,” said the Rev. David Inczawskis, a Jesuit priest and member of the Coalition for Spiritual and Public Leadership, which filed the lawsuit in Chicago. “But we also recognize that it is just one step on the path toward justice for immigrants.”
Since President Donald Trump began his second term, the number of people detained by ICE has risen to 75,000 from 40,000, spread across more than 225 locations. Capacity expands. The largest site is Camp East Montana In El Paso, Texas, where an average of about 3,000 people live every day.
The Trump administration has repeatedly portrayed mass deportation efforts as targeting immigrants who pose a risk to society, but data from the Deportation Data Project shows that the proportion of people detained by ICE with criminal histories has steadily declined.
It is not clear how He was fired on Thursday To the Minister of Homeland Security Kristi Noem It will affect detention centres, but the centers have come under increasing criticism, including before members of congress, on Living conditions And inconsistent Access to legal representation.
ICE facilities that hold detainees for more than 72 hours must have a chaplain or “faith services coordinator,” as well as designated spaces for services, ICE told The Associated Press.
The agency added that ICE policy requires advance notice and background checks for clergy and religious volunteers who want to provide pastoral visits, counseling and religious services.
ICE detainees come from all over the world, but historically most were born in Christian-majority countries.
Both cases center on access to federal buildings on the outskirts of Chicago and Minneapolis, where the clergy said detainees were held for several days during their respective law enforcement operations. Last fall and Earlier this winter.
Both cases allege that the government violated religious freedom by not allowing clergy to minister to immigrants.
The Illinois case said religious leaders were banned from the Broadview Center on some occasions starting last fall — a change since then. nun The coalition member who filed this lawsuit in mid-November had been visiting for weekly prayers, which had been approved for a decade.
After a judge ordered ICE to allow Ash Wednesday visitation, religious leaders are “cautiously optimistic” that they might arrange a regular schedule for visiting, offering prayers and bringing items like rosaries and Bibles, Inczauskis said.
Such access could also benefit federal agents, three of whom requested to receive the ashes alongside the migrants, he added.
In Minneapolis, the Rev. Chris Collins, also a Jesuit priest, was banned from entering a federal building where… Loud protests It happened daily during the boom. Along with branches of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Minnesota and the United Church of Christ, Collins filed a lawsuit against the government last February for “categorically denying” her the opportunity to provide pastoral care.
Clergy and volunteers of various faiths have long served immigration detainees.
About 15 years ago, the U.S. branch of Jesuit Refugee Service had a contract with the Department of Homeland Security to provide in-house chaplains at six centers, from near the Canadian border in New York to Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, said Bridget Cusick, a spokeswoman for the nonprofit.
Many of the clergy and volunteers involved say they are concerned about irregular access. However, they plan to continue their ministry because they see it as vital to preserving the right to worship and reminding immigrants of their humanity.
“I’m their only outside contact,” said Simran Singh, who began visiting Indian detainees at the Mesa Verde ICE facility in Bakersfield, Calif., a decade ago. “Most of their relatives are not in America… so I am the only one who knows that they exist, and that they are more than just a number.”
The Sikh volunteer added that on his weekly visits, detainees love the food from the gurdwara he prepares – for some, it is the only proper vegetarian food they have received while in detention.
Others are grateful that he hands over the turbans worn by observant men, which are often taken from them upon arrest.
“This is part of your identity. So, not only are you being stripped of your name, you are being stripped of your identity,” Singh said.
Likewise, Mahmoud, an Islamic priest in Texas, said she would like to provide prayer clothes, especially during Ramadan, but has not been allowed to do so yet.
In a letter to Congress last week, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops urged “continued access to religious and pastoral services for all immigration detainees” and called for “clear guidelines and uniform processes.”
The bishops have already expressed their concerns about this Lack of pastoral care In the fall statement Strongly supported By Pope Leo XIV.
For four decades, the Catholic Archbishop of Miami, Thomas Wenski, has been visiting migrants in the camp Krome Detention Center On the edge of the Everglades, where weekly mass is held.
He has also celebrated Mass in Florida Alcatraz crocodilea more remote and controversial center. In his sermon there last Christmas, he told dozens of mostly Latino and Latin American men that his presence was proof that they had not been forgotten.
“There are people out there praying for you,” Wenski recalled preaching. “God has not abandoned you.”
In the largest detention center, in El Paso, Sunday Mass is regularly celebrated and priests also visit to obtain confessions. But Bishop Mark Seitz said access is “extremely limited” due to what center management says is a lack of staff and space.
In Southern California, the Rev. Brian Nunes, auxiliary bishop of Los Angeles, recently celebrated two Masses at large detention centers in Adelanto and California City, where many suffer separation from their families and communities.
He also hopes to expand sponsorship.
“There’s also, on a very important level, this feeling that…even when it’s hard to serve them, they’ve been served,” Nunes said.
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AP journalist Morgan Lee contributed from Santa Fe, New Mexico.
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Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP cooperation With The Conversation US, funded by Lilly Endowment Inc., the AP is solely responsible for this content.