(RNS) — Taking a cue from the pope and American Catholic bishops, a group of Chicago-area Catholic priests, nuns and advocates filed a lawsuit against President Donald Trump’s administration, claiming the government is encroaching on their religious freedom by barring them from providing religious rites and services to immigrant detainees.
The complaint, filed on Wednesday (Nov. 19), follows weeks of faith-led protests outside of an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Broadview, Illinois, about 12 miles west of Chicago. Religious advocates allege detainees in the facility are being mistreated and that the advocates have repeatedly attempted to offer Communion and pastoral care to those inside. The faith leaders — who include large processions of Catholics, including a local bishop — say they have been denied each time, with one demonstration last week resulting in the arrest of at least seven faith leaders.
In their lawsuit, the Catholic plaintiffs — who include three priests, a nun, a lay Catholic advocate and the Chicago nonprofit Coalition for Spiritual and Public Leadership — note that at least some Catholic leaders were allowed in to the facility in years past and prayed with detainees. But the situation is different under Trump’s second administration, the plaintiffs say, resulting in a violation of their First Amendment rights as well as the Religious Freedom Restoration Act and the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act.
“Plaintiffs Fr. Dowling, Sr. Midura, Fr. Berry, Fr. Hartnett, Okińczyc-Cruz, and CSPL, each sought to exercise, but were denied by ICE, their right to free exercise of religion under the First Amendment to the Constitution and the RFRA by being denied the right to pray and administer Holy Communion to detainees housed at the ICE facility in Broadview,” the lawsuit reads.
It later adds: “The United States has a long history of accommodating such religious freedom and practice inside of prisons and jails, and there is no reason to deny them altogether at Broadview, where the vast majority of detainees have no criminal records.”
In a text message to Religion News Service, Michael Okińczyc-Cruz, executive director of the CSPL and a plaintiff in the case, recalled the “tireless, loving and courageous efforts of the late Sr. JoAnn Persch and Sr. Pat Murphy,” nuns who had previously been allowed to minister to detainees in the center.
People, including members of the Coalition for Spiritual and Public Leadership, gather outside the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Broadview, Ill., Oct. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Adam Gray)
“Now, amid inconsistent and opaque communication and statements from DHS and ICE that has unlawfully halted our ability to pray with detainees and offer pastoral care and Holy Communion, we have been compelled to pursue this lawsuit,” Okińczyc-Cruz said. “This case is a vital part of our ongoing grassroots organizing movement.”
The lawsuit notes the issue has sparked criticism from virtually all levels of the Catholic hierarchy, such as when Pope Leo XIV, speaking to reporters earlier this month, referred to detainees at the Broadview facility when he said, “I would certainly invite the authorities to allow pastoral workers to attend to the needs of those people.”
The complaint also noted a new special statement on immigration produced last week by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops at their fall meeting, which listed among their concerns “the conditions in detention centers and the lack of access to pastoral care.” Earlier this year, Catholic bishops helped co-author a report that claimed 1 in 5 Catholics could be deported or have a family member deported amid the Trump administration’s mass deportation efforts.
“The Catholic Church recognizes service to people on the margins as corporal works of mercy that are cornerstones of Christianity,” the complaint reads.
The plaintiffs also argue that there is “a special religious need” for them to be able to enter the facility because of alleged deteriorating conditions for those inside.
A member of the Illinois State Police, right, relays the message to clergy that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement denied them access to detainees to provide them Communion, outside an ICE facility in Broadview, Ill., Oct. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Adam Gray)
“The isolation is longer, the conditions in which they are held are worse, even intolerable, and the trauma that many detainees have suffered due to separation from their families is greater,” the complaint reads. “Under these circumstances, it is even more unreasonable and more unjustified burden on religion under the RFRA to deny Plaintiffs the right to provide spiritual and religious consolation prisoners like the detainees, as the Catholic faith of Plaintiffs has always directed them to do, that the Pope himself has recently affirmed as part of that faith, and that the government has always accommodated in the past.”
Allegations of mistreatment of immigrants at Broadview are also the subject of a separate, ongoing class-action lawsuit on behalf of detainees, which mentions the lack of pastoral care. Both complaints add to a growing list of lawsuits filed against the Trump administration by religious leaders or organizations this year, most focused on the president’s immigration policies.
It’s unclear how the government, which on X seemed to mock religious protesters who were arrested outside the Broadview facility last week, will respond to the new Catholic-led complaint. At least two Catholic bishops who sit on Trump’s Religious Liberty Commission raised concerns about detainees’ access to sacraments at the beginning of November, a rare moment of dissent among religious leaders who were seen by many as close with the administration.
The Department of Homeland Security, which supervises ICE, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Meanwhile, plaintiffs are hoping to finish the work of those who have gone before them. Earlier this month, Persch — the nun who spent years working with detainees at Broadview — told RNS via email that “for 19 years I have been praying at the door of the center with a group on the day of deportation.” She and her colleague, Murphy, fought to be granted access to deportation buses headed to the airport, and eventually were allowed “inside every Friday morning to meet those being deported.”
She added, “Now, of course, we can’t even pray in front of the building. Our group has to pray at a distance.”
Persch, who attended protests that attempted to gain access to the facility at the beginning of this month, died Friday. She was 91.