BROADVIEW, Ill. — A clergy member arrested during a protest outside a federal immigration processing center described being violently detained and “dehumanized,” as reported by Sojourners in its article, “I Was Arrested Outside of an ICE Facility We Need to Shut Down.” The publication reported that more than 100 clergy gathered Nov. 14 in Broadview, Illinois, calling for the closure of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement processing facility, the release of all detainees, and for the Department of Homeland Security to “honor federal law by allowing detainees spiritual care.”
According to Sojourners, clergy “walked arm-in-arm into the street to make [their] demands known,” where they were “immediately met with violence.”
In the past 2.5 months of protesting at Broadview, the arrested clergy member told Sojourners they have “experienced more violence from ICE and Illinois State Police than I have hitherto experienced over my entire lifetime.” A Reuters photograph shows them lying face down on the pavement with their arms behind their back during the arrest.
The clergy member told Sojourners that their clerical collar offered no protection, saying, “It did not matter that I was wearing a clerical collar,” and that officers ignored their statements that the group was “peaceably assembled” and “meant absolutely no harm.” They said that “during a lull in the action, I was slammed to the ground and zip-tied,” and later charged with three misdemeanors.
Sojourners reported that the majority of protesters were faith leaders, calling it “the biggest group that I’d seen yet at the facility in Broadview.” Despite the arrest, the clergy member said they were proud of the group’s insistence that what is happening inside the facility is “torture—pure and simple.” They added that it was “neither normal nor acceptable.”
The clergy member recounted overhearing a commanding officer instruct others with truncheons to “[l]ight ’em up” while they were zip-tied. Sojourners said the clergy member’s shock further proved how law enforcement “view clergy, moral actors, and protesters as the enemy.”
According to the publication, clergy from across the Chicago region attended because they believe “Broadview is a concentration camp.” The arrested minister, who lives 30 minutes away, said “this still feels like an injustice happening in my backyard.”
Sojourners added that serious concerns about the facility have been increasingly documented. In September, the Associated Press reported statements from Brenda Perez, who said her detained husband “had gone 24 hours without food,” adding, “He would beg them for food and water because he was hungry and very thirsty and they would just ignore him.” On Nov. 5, U.S. District Judge Robert Gettleman ordered authorities to improve conditions after testimony deemed them “inhumane.”
The clergy member told Sojourners they spent seven hours detained in Cook County Jail and gained a new understanding of the “dehumanization that incarceration induces.” When they asked an officer to loosen their restraints, the officer replied, “No one wants to talk to you. Shut the f**k up.” They described how it felt to be under someone’s power “to the extent that they can cause you harm just by refusing to take action.”
The publication reported that those detained together found community among themselves as twelve people “sang songs, recited poetry, advocated for one another, and formed a community.” The clergy member referenced Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s, statement that a first arrest for a just cause can feel like “baptism,” noting that “resistance is impossible [when alone] but in community […] new worlds are possible.”
As written in Sojourners, the clergy member said they were afraid until another clergy person “grabbed my arm and looped it with theirs” before the march entered the street. This reminded them that “wherever we go for the sake of justice and mercy, God is there with us.”
Following the protest, Broadview Mayor Katrina Thompson published comments on social media stating that out-of-town protesters had chosen violence. According to Sojourners, that characterization is inaccurate and reflects a pattern of authorities depicting protesters as violent even when video contradicts that claim. The clergy member emphasized that participants “had their hands raised in prayer, not in aggression,” the outlet reported.
Sojourners concluded that violence is not an acceptable response for Christians and that prayer alone will not be enough to close the Broadview ICE processing facility. The publication stated that real change will require action, clarity of purpose, and more people willing to join the protest movement. The clergy member told the outlet they believe meaningful change is on its way.
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