Clergy seek court order to allow pastoral access to immigrants held at Minneapolis ICE facility
MINNEAPOLIS — Protestant and Catholic clergy are asking a federal judge to order that they be allowed to minister to immigrants at a detention center at the Trump administration’s law enforcement headquarters in Minnesota.
U.S. District Judge Jerry Blackwell will hear Friday from attorneys for the Minnesota branches of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, the United Church of Christ and a Catholic priest. They are seeking an injunction requiring Department of Homeland Security officials to allow rapid in-person pastoral visits to all detainees at the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building in Minneapolis, the site of frequent protests against the roughly 3,000 federal agents who swept into the state at the height of the crackdown.
The Minnesota lawsuit alleges that the Whipple Building, named for Minnesota’s first Episcopal bishop and 19th-century human rights advocate, “now stands in stark contrast to the legacy of its namesake.” It claims the building has “become the epicenter of the federal government’s systematic deprivation of basic constitutional and legal rights.”
Government lawyers plan to argue that the request is at least partly moot because Operation Metro Surge officially ended on February 12. They also say the number of new detentions has since declined, so temporary restrictions on visitors have been eased and clergy visits have been allowed for more than two weeks. In a recent filing, they said staff members were not in a good position previously to allow visits because the Whipple building had been “both a hub of intensified ICE operations and the symbolic center of community unrest.”
Minnesota’s Catholic and Episcopal bishops, other Christian and Jewish clergy, and the Minnesota Council of Churches also support the request.
Clergy across the country are pushing for greater access to immigration detention centers, particularly during the holy periods of Lent and Ramadan. It is a long-standing practice of religious leaders caring for detainees. but this has become much more controversial in the context of the current crackdown on immigration.
It took a similar trial for two Catholic priests and a nun to enter an ICE facility in the Chicago suburb of Broadview on Ash Wednesday last month. And Muslim and Christian clergy in Texas have had difficulty accessing large Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention centers.
The Minnesota lawsuit alleges that ICE unconstitutionally blocked religious leaders “from offering prayer, pastoral counseling, sacramental ministry, and spiritual comfort to detainees in times of deep fear, isolation, and despair.”
The records list several instances in which clergy traveled to Whipple to minister to inmates but were denied access, including Ash Wednesday, a solemn day in many Christian traditions in which clergy place ashes on the foreheads of worshipers in the sign of the cross.
The lawsuit called the restrictions in place at Whipple a violation of both the constitutional freedom of religion of clergy who feel obligated by their faith to serve inmates and the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993.
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ICE’s stated policy is that facilities that hold detainees for more than 72 hours must have a chaplain or “religious services coordinator” as well as dedicated spaces for services. ICE says its policy also requires advance notice and background checks for clergy and religious volunteers.
But government lawyers and ICE officials say the Whipple building is only a short-term detention center and that most detainees there are transferred to other ICE facilities within 24 hours.
Tauria Rich, a senior local ICE official who oversees the facility, said in a statement released this week that visitors are rare and any requests from clergy will again be handled on a case-by-case basis. She said a clergy member tried to visit her in early March, but left because no inmates were present. The visit would have been permitted if inmates had been present, she said.
It’s not just clergy who have had difficulty gaining entry. Three Minnesota congressmen were turned away while trying to inspect the facilities. Once they arrived, they reported poor conditions.
Access has also been an issue for lawyers. Homeland Security was ordered by another federal judge last month to give Whipple’s new detainees immediate access to an attorney before they are taken elsewhere.
