ICE bars clergy from ministering to detainees. Holy Communion becomes court matter

By Mary Ann Mueller

VOL Special Correspondent

www.virtueonline.org

February 26, 2026

It does not matter if a person is born in Washington State or Washington, DC or Washington, England; Christchurch, Virginia or Christchurch, New Zealand; Moscow, Russia or Moscow, Idaho; Johannesburg, South Africa or Johannesburg, California; Paris, Wisconsin or Paris, France; THE Bethlehem or Bethlehem, Pennsylvania; Nogales, Arizona or Nogales, Mexico; Sault Ste. Marie, Canada or Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan; San Antonio, Texas or San Antonio, El Salvador, or San Antonio, Florida or San Antonio, Italy, or San Antonio, Colorado, or San Antonio, Venezuela, or San Antonio, Missouri or San Antonio, Nicaragua, or San Antonio, New Mexico or San Antonio, Puerto Rico …

The Washingtonians, the Christchurchers, the Muscovites, the Johannesburgers, the Parisians, the Bethlehemites, the Nogalense, the Saultites, and the San Antonians all have one thing in common — they are created by God.

No matter where they were born or where they now live they cannot escape the omnipresent God. They need to stay connected with HIM for their soul’s sake.

The Americans, the New Zealanders, the Eurasians, the Africans, the Europeans, the Middle Easterners, the Mexicans, the Canadians, the Central and South Americans, the Caribbeans are loved by God. And Jesus was born to die for them on the Cross. 

But if Jesus Christ were walking in the flesh on earth today, since He was born in historic ancient Bethlehem, He, too, could be scooped up by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement colloquially known as ICE. He'd be classified as a foreigner. His foreign-born priests – Catholic and Episcopal – are not immune, neither would He.

He would walk in their faltering footsteps. But Jesus has been arrested once before in the Garden of Gethsemane the night before He died on the Cross. Not by ICE but by a cohort of Roman soldiers and Temple guards sent by the Sanhedrin. He was not deported – He met death! A cruel crucifixion – an agonizing death on a cross.

But nowadays ICE steps in to try and foil clergy from fulfilling their God-given mission to minister to God's beloved by standing in the way of them providing the Word and Sacrament, much needed encouragement during very trying times when the foreign-born are ripped from their families and forcefully detained with the threat of being removed from American soil. The clergy are denied from offering the touch of humanity and the comfort of prayer.

CLERGY GO TO COURT

The clergy are fighting back. Not only on their knees in prayer, but in the courts.

On Monday (February 23) a lawsuit was filed on behalf of the Minneapolis Area Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA); the Minnesota Conference of the United Church of Christ; and the Rev. Fr. Christopher Collins, the Jesuit parochial administrator (vicar) at St. Peter Claver Catholic Church in St. Paul.

The Minnesota clergy are claiming that ICE’s practice of restricting pastors from visiting with detainees deprives them of their First Amendment right to practice their faith.

The lawsuit came after ICE prevented the pastors and priests and other clergy from providing pastoral care for detainees – “to care for those most in need at their darkest hours.”

The defendants named in the lawsuit include: Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem; acting ICE Director Todd Lyons; and David Easterwood, ICE’s acting field director in St. Paul. (Easterwood is listed as a pastor at Cities Church in St. Paul, where demonstrators disrupted a church service in January.)

The Minneapolis clergy conflict has gone on since December 4, 2025 when the Trump Administration escalated ICE enforcement in the Twin Cities (Minneapolis and St. Paul) when it unleashed Operation Metro Surge. Upwards to 3,000 federal and ICE agents flooded the snow packed streets working out of the Whipple Federal Building which became the base of operations for the surge of ICE agents into Minnesota.

But it came to a head on Ash Wednesday when clergy were forbidden from entering the Whipple Federal Building for the imposition of ashes. A traditional Ash Wednesday practice where Christians stop to recalibrate their faith walk with Jesus leading up to Easter.

“The filing lists numerous instances of pastors being denied access to detainees over the past few months, including at least four pastors who sought to impose ashes on Ash Wednesday,” KSPT reports.

The litany of blocking clergy from ministering to ICE detainees include: On Dec. 12, (the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe) when Fr. Collins attempted to enter Whipple to pray for a detained mother of a local student.

December 12 is a special day of joy for the Latinos who celebrate Our Lady of Guadalupe.

“But when he arrived, he was blocked from even entering the parking lot to Whipple,” Minnesota Public Radio (MPR) reports. “He was prevented entirely from accessing the building and from ministering to those believed to be inside the building.”

A month later, the United Church of Christ (UCC) ministers the Revs. Susan Hayward and Rebecca Voelkel were also barred from entering the Whipple building by Homeland Security officials, preventing the UCC ministers from providing any spiritual guidance or care to the ICE detainees.

Then on Feb. 18, Lutheran Pastor Melissa Gonzalez said that a DHS staff member sent her to a waiting room, but ultimately blocked her from visiting detainees on Ash Wednesday. She was told that the clergywoman would not be permitted access to detainees for “security and safety reasons.”

“Spiritual care delayed is often spiritual care denied,” the lawsuit explains. “especially where detainees may be transferred without notice.”

Ash Wednesday is not a high holy day of obligation but it is a culturally significant day when people flood to the church for the imposition of ashes.

Not only are the churches filled but clergy – including Episcopalians – go out into the streets to impose ashes and even set up drive through locations, so a person can get their foreheads ashed without leaving their car or hearing the Word of God proclaimed.

In the Land of Lincoln, the Coalition for Spiritual and Public Leadership (CSPL) filed a lawsuit in November 2025 in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois alleging that ICE unlawfully blocked clergy from providing pastoral care.

ILLINOIS COURT ISSUES PARTIAL RULING

However, just in time for Ash Wednesday, Senior Judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois Robert Gettleman issued a preliminary injunction on Feb. 13, 2026 ordering ICE to allow Catholic clergy, including nuns, to provide Communion and the imposition of ashes to detainees at the ICE processing center in Broadview, Illinois. Ash Wednesday was on Feb. 18.

The Illinois judge found that blocking these religious actions violated the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993 (RFRA) which prevents federal agencies – including ICE – from "substantially burdening" a person's exercise of religion unless they use the least restrictive means to further a compelling interest. The RFRA restored strict scrutiny for religious freedom.

Judge Gettleman ruled that with proper safety, security, and notice allowing the religious visits does not impose undue hardship on the government.

Although Judge Gentleman's ruling does not impact ICE detention at the Whipple Federal Building on the outskirts of Minneapolis.

EPISCOPAL HISTORY WITH FEDERAL BUILDING

The Episcopal Church has a long-storied history with the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building at One Federal Drive in Fort Snelling near the airport and within view of the river which separates Minnesota from Wisconsin.

The seven thousand square foot, seven storey building is named for Episcopal Bishop Henry Whipple, the founding bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Minnesota.

Minnesota was initially a part of the missionary territory of the famed Episcopal Bishop Jackson Kemper who was instrumental in founding Nashotah House in Wisconsin. He was tasked by the 1838 General Convention to be the missionary Bishop for the “Territories of Wisconsin and Iowa and in all other parts of the United States north of latitude 36½⁰ (36⁰30’) where the Church is as yet unorganized.” This would ultimately include Indiana, Iowa, Missouri, Wisconsin, Nebraska, Kansas and Minnesota as westward expansion spread across the American frontier.

In 1859 Minnesota became a standalone Episcopal diocese when Henry Whipple became its first bishop. He held that post for forty-two years until he died in 1901. He was consecrated by Bishop Kemper, who at the time was the founding bishop of the original Diocese of Wisconsin.

Eventually, as the State of Wisconsin grew, the historic Diocese of Wisconsin was split into the dioceses of Eau Claire, Fond du Lac, and Milwaukee. It was not until 2024 that the Diocese of Wisconsin was reconstituted with the eighth Bishop of Fond du Lac Matthew Alan Gunter becoming the fourth Bishop of Wisconsin.

The Minneapolis area federal building was built in 1965 and named for the Minnesota Episcopal bishop. It currently houses the United States Department of Veterans Affairs, the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, the United States Department of Defense, and the United States Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE operations.

Bishop Whipple was noted for his defense, humanitarianism and advocacy for the American Indian particularly with the Dakota and Ojibwe tribes of Minnesota.

He felt that the federal policy coming out of Washington, DC towards Native Americans was corrupt and abusive.

BISHOP WHIPPLE'S INVOLVEMENT WITH THE DAKOTA WAR

The Dakota War of 1862 saw the Minnesota Dakota tribes were exiled from their homelands and forcibly sent to reservations in the Nebraska and Dakota territories. Then the State of Minnesota confiscated and sold all their remaining land in the state. In 1862 Minnesota Governor Alexander Ramsey called for the Dakota peoples to "be exterminated or driven forever beyond the borders of the State."

After leaving office Gov. Ramsey was elected US Senator and eventually he was appointed the Secretary of War under President Rutherford B. Hayes.

Bishop Whipple was horrified by what he saw. He personally appealed to President Abraham Lincoln for the lives of the Dakota who were imprisoned at Fort Snelling, where approximately 2,000 Dakota surrendered or were taken into custody.

A military commission decreed that 303 Dakota should be hanged for killing innocent farmers. Bishop Whipple went to Washington to see President Lincoln to plead for their lives.

Abraham Lincoln is reported as saying that Bishop Whipple’s passionate testimony on behalf of the Dakota had "shaken him down to his boots," thus heavily influencing him to commute the capital sentence hanging over the heads of most of the accused Dakota warriors who were condemned to die by the military commission.

After meeting with the Minnesota Episcopal bishop the President of the United States commuted the death sentence for all but 39 Dakota. However, in the end 38 Indians were hanged in Mankato, Minnesota in December 1862. One condemned Indian prisoner received a reprieve. The Dakota deaths was the largest one-day mass execution in American history.

Following the event President Lincoln called on Congress to reform the Bureau of Indian Affairs and federal Indian policy.

Bishop Whipple intervention with President Lincoln was not well received by the Minnesotans. He received several death threats for his actions on behalf of the Indian tribes.

WHIPPLE FEDERAL BUILDING PROTESTS

Through the years Bishop Whipple's namesake building has been the site of several protests and demonstrations against ICE.

In 2016, activists rallied for the release of eight Cambodian-American refugees who had been detained by ICE. 

In 2018, eighteen protestors were arrested during a demonstration that had blocked the light rail tracks adjacent to the building.

In July 2019, a "Lights for Liberty" vigil was held in front of the building ahead of the deployment of ICE raids in several cities. In addition, 200 mostly-Jewish activists protested at the building against ICE polices.

In October 2019, protestors led by Minnesota Episcopal Church gathered at the building to demand its name be changed.

WCCO reported that “the protest was led by leaders of the Minnesota Episcopal Church, and there were some tense moments as protesters made an attempt to visit ICE detainees and serve them Communion.”

So denying clergy access to Minneapolis area ICE detainees for Sacramental care has been an ongoing issue for several years.

"The current practices and actions taking place within Bishop Henry Whipple Building are contrary to the belief, policy, values, and practices of the Episcopal Church and people of faith," said Bishop Brian Prior (IX Minnesota) who spoke at the 2019 protest.

The protesters issued an ultimatum. They said that if Bishop Whipple’s name is not removed from the building, they wanted ICE evicted from its offices there.

However, it would take an act of Congress to erase Bishop Whipple's name from the Fort Snelling federal building and rename it.

The protesters feel that it is dishonoring the early Minnesota Episcopal bishop who was so committed to advocating for American Indian rights during the brewing tensions between the red man and the white men on the expanding American frontier.

Most recently, last October and before the unleashing of Operation Metro Surge, a large protest was held at the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building during a visit by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.

Mary Ann Mueller is a journalist living in Texas. She is a regular contributor to VirtueOnline.