Overview
- U.S. District Judge Robert Gettleman issued a Feb. 12 preliminary injunction requiring DHS to allow pastoral access for Ash Wednesday, finding the government burdened religious exercise.
- DHS notified organizers on Wednesday that a small delegation could enter at 3 p.m. CST, and the agency complied with the court order.
- Two priests and a nun spent about two hours inside, administering ashes and Communion to four detainees and three staff members, and described an emotional encounter with cooperative staff.
- Clergy had been barred from in-person ministry at Broadview since 2020, a period that included last fall’s Midway Blitz when the site functioned as a de facto detention center with reported overcrowding and poor conditions.
- Outside the facility, Cardinal Blase Cupich led a large Mass and procession in Melrose Park for families of detainees and deportees, emphasizing human dignity regardless of legal status.