Seven Clergy Arrested at Broadview; Sister JoAnn Persch Dies Same Day

On November 14, 2025, more than 100 clergy gathered at the Broadview ICE Processing Center in Illinois demanding facility closure, release of detainees, and DHS compliance with federal law on detainee spiritual care. The gathering was organized under the banner of the “Jesus is Being Tear Gassed at Broadview” open letter, signed by more than 280 Chicago-area clergy. Twenty-one people were arrested; seven were ordained faith leaders — the largest single-day clergy arrest in the Broadview confrontation.

The seven clergy arrested included Rev. Michael Woolf (lead pastor at Lake Street Church of Evanston, nearly seven years in that role), who was arrested minutes after protesters were pushed from the street. He had moved closer to the facility so detainees inside could hear prayers being offered. Officers wrestled him to the ground and pressed their knees into his body; he sustained bruises under his suit and spent seven hours in custody. Rev. Hannah Kardon (United Methodist, United Church of Rogers Park) — who had also been arrested October 17 when Illinois State Police pushed demonstrators back with batons, striking her leg — was among those arrested again. Pastor Luke Harris-Ferree was taken with his hands raised in prayer, describing himself as nonviolent; he charged that state and county police were aiding ICE in violation of Illinois’s TRUST Act. Rev. Dr. Beth Johnson was also named among those arrested. Rev. Lucas Hergert (Unitarian Universalist) sustained tear gas exposure. Rev. Abby Holcombe (United Methodist) led a communion effort outside the facility during the action. Each clergy arrestee faced three misdemeanor charges. An unnamed clergy arrestee reported being “slammed to the ground and zip-tied,” spending seven hours in Cook County Jail, and being told by an officer: “No one wants to talk to you. Shut the f*** up.” The arrestee noted: “It did not matter that I was wearing a clerical collar.”

Sister JoAnn Persch, RSM, died November 14, 2025 — the same day as the mass clergy arrests. She was 91. A founding figure of the Chicago Archdiocese’s ICE detention ministry and a Sister of Mercy, Persch had ministered to migrants in ICE facilities for decades, pioneering the tradition of regular clergy access that the apparatus shut down in September 2025. On November 1 — All Saints Day — she had stood before more than 2,000 faithful gathered outside Broadview and announced that the delegation led by Chicago Auxiliary Bishop José María García-Maldonado had again been denied entry. Her words to the crowd: “It breaks my heart.” She died two weeks later on the day the largest clergy protest of the Broadview confrontation produced the largest single-day clergy arrest. The convergence — Persch’s death with the arrests — was documented but not orchestrated; it collapsed the Broadview story into a single day of institutional rupture.

The November 14 events represent the direct escalation sequence from the November 1 All Saints Day denial (Auxiliary Bishop García-Maldonado turned away, Persch’s public announcement) through the November 7 prayer ban (documented in cascade-timeline 2025-11-07--ice-broadview-prayer-ban-first-amendment.md). The “Jesus is Being Tear Gassed at Broadview” letter — with 280+ clergy signatories — was the organizing instrument that brought more than 100 ordained ministers to the facility gates. The apparatus’s response: physical force, arrest, and a seven-hour detention of clergy in clerical collars.

The November 14 arrests followed the pattern set September 19 (pepper-ball attack on Rev. David Black), October 11 (Eucharistic procession denial), October 17 (Kardon’s first arrest), November 1 (All Saints Day denial), and November 7 (prayer ban). Five days later, on November 19, the Coalition for Spiritual and Public Leadership filed federal suit in the Northern District of Illinois under RFRA, RLUIPA, and the First Amendment — with the Broadview arrests, the All Saints Day denial, and the pattern of access shutdowns since Operation Midway Blitz as the documented factual basis. Federal court access was ultimately ordered by Judge Robert W. Gettleman on February 12, 2026, enforced on Ash Wednesday.