(RNS) — Every Friday for the past 19 years, a group of Catholics has prayed the rosary outside a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facility in Broadview, Illinois, forming a small circle for mutual support and warmth. The rotating band of lay leaders, nuns and priests had largely cordial interactions with ICE agents, participants say: Priests and others were sometimes allowed to climb aboard buses and pray with detainees as they left the site to be deported abroad.
But according to the Rev. Brendan Curran, ICE’s demeanor began to change earlier this year. Then things shifted dramatically roughly two months ago, when masked ICE agents at the facility began violently dispersing protesters, even religious leaders.
“(There’s) a physical need to step away from the space we occupied for almost 19 years for our own safety, the safety around us and the safety of those we accompanied,” said Curran, a Dominican priest and co-founder of Priests for Justice for Immigrants. He said his religious freedom, along with others, has been met with intimidation and “untoward harm” at the hands of federal officials…