Judge orders ICE to let clergy distribute ashes to migrants in detention on Ash Wednesday

A federal judge on Thursday ordered ICE to let members of the clergy into a migrant processing facility near Chicago to distribute ashes next week on Ash Wednesday, saying the government’s attempt to block them was a violation of their religious rights.

U.S. District Judge Robert Gettleman, a Clinton appointee, also directed U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to figure out more access for religious ministries going in the future at the Broadview facility.

“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 wrote.

Broadview was the site of major anti-ICE demonstrations last year, amid an immigration enforcement surge in Chicago.

Members of the clergy led many of those demonstrations and complained that their ability to visit migrants in the facility had been constrained.

ICE admitted that the clergy used to have more access. Two Catholic nuns used to make weekly visits and, during the pandemic, made connections with migrants by video. They passed away last year.

Then, during last fall’s enforcement surge, when the facility went on lockdown due to the protests, other clergy showed up asking for access.

ICE said that was turned down because the agency could not facilitate safe visits.

Clergy members sued, saying both their own rights and those of the migrants were being trampled on. They cited the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which bars the government from unduly burdening someone’s exercise of religion.

Judge Gettleman found that the clergy’s rights were, in fact, hindered.

“Defendants’ bar on plaintiffs’ visitation to Broadview is fundamentally responsible for rendering plaintiffs’ religious practice of providing ministry to detainees and migrants effectively impracticable,” he wrote.