Why Clergy Should Risk Assault to Protest ICE

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Editor’s note: The day after this article was published, Rev. Michael Woolf was among an estimated 21 clergy and faith leaders violently arrested by police outside the Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facility in Broadview, Ill., near Chicago. Read more.

Religion News Service | Nov 13, 2025

Dressed in a clerical collar and posing no threat, I was shot in the leg with a pepper ball by Illinois State Police while protesting outside the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Broadview, Illinois, on Nov. 1. It was the second time I was assaulted while protesting at the facility about 35 minutes from the church I pastor. In the first incident, an ICE agent grabbed my neck and grabbed my chest and twisted as hard as he could.

If you think they treat me badly, when the whole world is watching, it pales in comparison to what happens inside that facility. Whether it’s the denial of medication and spiritual care, the unsanitary and overcrowded conditions, or inadequate food, as has been reported in court, there can be no doubt — it is torture, pure and simple. It’s why I refuse to be silent, and I will continue showing up to the Broadview facility until it is closed.

It is important for my neighbors who were abducted to know that we will not stop fighting for their release. I joined the protest on Nov. 1 because ICE agents came into my community, Evanston, Illinois, on Halloween, and kidnapped and tear-gassed my neighbors. Much fewer children were out trick-or-treating that night, and many Halloween events at schools were canceled. When I talked to members of my youth group who witnessed the events from their school classroom windows, they were terrified.

This is only one story in the broader attempt to terrorize Chicagoland, where ICE leaders have been placed under increasing scrutiny by courts for their behavior.

By my estimation, our country is somewhere in 1930s Germany. Fascism is growing in power, but we still have opportunities to resist. The protests in Broadview are not simply a protest movement — they are a fight for the very soul of the nation. As the Trump administration attempts to shift the Overton window, changing our perception of what is acceptable, it is imperative that religious leaders speak out against the mission of terror and cruelty.

For me at least, these protests are also an expression of my most deeply held religious beliefs. Throughout Scripture, we are instructed to care for the immigrants in our midst. Leviticus 19:33-34 even says, "When a foreigner resides among you, do not mistreat them. The foreigner living among you must be treated as one of your own people and you must love them as you love yourself, because you were foreigners in Egypt. I am the Lord your God.” It’s hard to get clearer than that.

In addition, Matthew 25 clearly says that God is identified with the most vulnerable in society. Whatever we do to or withhold from them, we do to or withhold from Jesus. I take that very seriously because it is one of the clearest avenues we have to God in this moment. For people wanting to experience God, we are more likely to meet the Divine trying to shut down the Broadview facility than we ever were in church. I say that as someone who leads a church for a living. God does not live in our houses of worship, but instead chooses to dwell with those who are bearing the brunt of cruelty in this moment.

Despite the Trump administration’s mischaracterizations, the protests I have attended have felt much more like church than a violent insurrection. There is plenty of prayer, a lot of singing and some sermons. Most of all, there is a real sense of community that pervades the atmosphere. We are all there to support our neighbors and one another. That community is so important as we strive to confront the powers of evil that are at work in this administration’s cruelty. Alone, resistance is impossible, but together, there can even be a remarkable amount of joy.

Being assaulted is not something anyone would seek out, but it is something we should expect when we take on what Paul calls the “powers and principalities.” I am far from the only clergyperson to be assaulted while protesting at the facility. In a case that shocked the nation’s conscience, the Rev. David Black was shot with a pepper ball in the head outside Broadview, and the Rev. Hannah Kardon was violently arrested while praying in October. It is part of a disturbing trend in which ICE agents and the Illinois State Police collude to strip us of our First Amendment rights.

Our country needs religious leaders of all different faiths to reach deep within their traditions and find the strength to resist tyranny. Each of our traditions has different resources that we can draw from, and they are all needed now. For clergy with privilege like me, now is the time to use it to protect our neighbors and fight for their freedom. I fear that if we wait, it will be too late.

The Rev. Michael Woolf is senior minister of Lake Street Church of Evanston, Illinois, and the author of “Sanctuary and Subjectivity: Thinking Theologically About Whiteness and Sanctuary Movements.” The views expressed in this commentary do not necessarily reflect those of Religion News Service.