‘It’s time for the church to be courageous’: Minnesota Conference lawsuit gains clergy access to those detained by ICE

On Friday, a federal district court ruled that faith leaders must be granted entry into the Whipple Federal Building near Minneapolis to offer pastoral care to those detained by ICE.

The ruling is a preliminary injunction for a lawsuit filed on behalf of the Minnesota Conference of the United Church of Christ, together with the Minneapolis Area Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and a Jesuit priest.

“This lawsuit attends to the heart of our call to be present for those who are in pain and suffering,” the Minnesota Conference Board said in a statement. “We proudly stand with our siblings to say that the government cannot politicize our faith; they cannot bind hope and love and mercy because of a political agenda.”

‘To remind them they are not alone’

Several faith leaders have been denied from entering the facility, including UCC ministers, the Rev. Susie Hayward and Rev. Rebecca Voelkel, whose experience being barred from providing spiritual care or guidance to detainees is cited in the lawsuit.

People who have been detained in the Whipple Building have testified to dehumanizing conditions. “There was no humanity,” one former detainee said.

Hayward described the Whipple Building as “the site of extraordinary state violence for decades, and especially during Operation Metro Surge.” She said that “being barred by the federal government from being able to provide spiritual comfort to detainees at a time of such anguish was not only illegal, it was morally wrong.”

“Detainees at the Whipple Building have been abducted, often very violently, and thrown into deplorable conditions designed to inflict further trauma,” Voelkel said. “They deserve pastoral care and accompaniment; they deserve hands laid on them and prayer to remind them they are not alone, that they are beloved in the sight of the Holy One, that they are held amidst the injustice.” 

‘Unequivocal matters of faith’

The ruling released on March 20 comes after Groundwork Legal and Saul Ewing filed the lawsuit against the government, on behalf of the faith leaders, for violating the First Amendment and Religious Freedom Restoration Act. The lawyers are providing their services pro bono.

Presiding Judge Jerry Blackwell ruled that the Department of Homeland Security must grant faith leaders access to detainees in the Whipple Building as the case continues to move forward. Religious leaders had filled the court room during the case’s March 13 hearing.

“The Minnesota Conference of the United Church of Christ is overjoyed at the court’s decision to allow faith leaders into the Whipple Building to provide pastoral care, support, and spiritual nurture,” said the Rev. Kelly Gallagher, associate conference minister. “It is society and politicians that have made such actions as visiting the imprisoned, feeding the hungry, welcoming the stranger political. For us they have always been unequivocal matters of faith.”

‘Call these policies what they are’

Religious freedoms during Operation Metro Surge in Minnesota have been violated in several ways, Hayward said. She described being denied from providing pastoral care at the sites of Renee Good and Alex Pretti’s murders – and instead, getting teargassed with others by ICE agents. Hayward also experienced ICE agents using noisemakers to interrupt an outside, peaceful, multi-faith vigil, as well as neighbors being unable to attend worship services for months because they did not feel safe to do so.

“This federal government has done far more to obstruct and disrupt the religious practice of those in America in recent months than I’ve ever experienced in my life. We must keep naming the hypocrisy and the dehumanizing and cruel policies of this administration that go directly counter to the gospel. And we must call these policies what they are: anti-Christ,” she said.

‘Courageous in the face of injustice’

While it has been a long-held practice for faith leaders to minister to detained migrants, this has become increasingly contentious with the Trump administration’s targeted surges and unprecedented expansion of migrant detention facilities.

And clergy across the country have responded by advocating for migrants and pushing for greater access to those detained. A recent Chicago-area lawsuit was also successful in granting faith leaders access into an ICE facility.  

“ICE and Customs and Border Patrol agents are acting in the name of a distorted and diseased Christianity called White Christian Nationalism,” Voelkel said. “They are suggesting that some are less-than-human and undeserving of dignity. They tear disabled people from their cars, they drag pregnant people along the street, they seek to humiliate elders by parading them in their underwear in brutally cold conditions. None of this is Christian behavior. All of it is blasphemous and sinful.

“We are seeking to say no to this horror that is being perpetrated in the name of Jesus, in our names. And, instead, we are seeking to follow in the genuine path that Jesus has laid: love of God, love of neighbor, denouncing evil, healing the sick, acting for justice.”

Participating in the lawsuit is a way of living out the Minnesota Conference mission of “equipping a courageous church alive with Christ’s transforming love,” said Board Moderator, the Rev. Sara Morse. “The Board of Directors was able to act quickly on deciding to participate in this lawsuit, because it was the right thing to do – it was time for the church to be courageous in the face of injustice and to model Christ’s transforming love in action.”

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