ICE DENIES COMMUNION TO CATHOLIC IMMIGRANTS
by John R. Connolly
11/12/2025
11/12/2025
On two occasions in less than a month ICE officials have refused to allow a group of Catholic leaders including a bishop and a group of Catholic priests and nuns to bring communion to immigrants detained inside the Broadway ICE Detention Center near Chicago. The first occasion was on October 11, 2025, when Father David Inczaukis of the Coalition for Spiritual and Public Leadership and a group of Catholic priests and nuns were turned away by ICE and not allowed to give communion to the detainees. Again, on All Saints Day, November 1, 2025, federal immigration officials refused to allow Catholic leaders to administer communion to immigrants being held inside the Broadview Detention Center. This group of Catholics were led by Chicago Auxiliary Bishop Jose’ Maria Garcia-Maldonado. As justification for denying immigrants their religious rights the Federal officials responded by saying that there would be no more prayer in front of or inside the Broadway ICE facility, seemingly assuming that they had the power to create no prayer zones.
Cardinal Blasé Cupich of Chicago spoke out against ICE’s decision, pointing out that the denial of religious services is a violation of the religious freedom of Catholics. Bishop Kevin Rhoades, Fort Wayne-South Bend, who sits on Trump’s Religious Liberty Commission criticized this denial of the parochial care and the reception of the sacraments to the detainees, stating that “Their religious liberty, part of their human dignity, needs to be respected.” On November 4, 2025, Pope Leo called on the Trump administration to guarantee that immigrants held at the Chicago detention centers receive full access to spiritual and pastoral visits. Stressing human dignity and religious rights the pope stated that respecting the spiritual needs of detained immigrants is a moral imperative.
What we are seeing here is the hypocrisy of a Maga World that claims to be Christian. Their leader supposedly was chosen by God to become president in order to save God and restore Christianity in America. Every day they defend what they are doing in the name of religion. Many of their leaders claim to be devout Christians, some devout Catholics. Yet what they fail to see is the exclusiveness and politization of their Maga brand of the Christian Gospel which aligns a racist white supremacist political agenda with a white supremacist Christian nationalism.
11/12/2025
Cardinal Blasé Cupich of Chicago spoke out against ICE’s decision, pointing out that the denial of religious services is a violation of the religious freedom of Catholics. Bishop Kevin Rhoades, Fort Wayne-South Bend, who sits on Trump’s Religious Liberty Commission criticized this denial of the parochial care and the reception of the sacraments to the detainees, stating that “Their religious liberty, part of their human dignity, needs to be respected.” On November 4, 2025, Pope Leo called on the Trump administration to guarantee that immigrants held at the Chicago detention centers receive full access to spiritual and pastoral visits. Stressing human dignity and religious rights the pope stated that respecting the spiritual needs of detained immigrants is a moral imperative.
What we are seeing here is the hypocrisy of a Maga World that claims to be Christian. Their leader supposedly was chosen by God to become president in order to save God and restore Christianity in America. Every day they defend what they are doing in the name of religion. Many of their leaders claim to be devout Christians, some devout Catholics. Yet what they fail to see is the exclusiveness and politization of their Maga brand of the Christian Gospel which aligns a racist white supremacist political agenda with a white supremacist Christian nationalism.
11/12/2025