Pope receives letters from ICE detainees, pastoral workers in Chicago
A Chicago-based coalition presented Pope Leo XIV with an album containing messages from detainees at an ICE processing facility and pastoral workers supporting immigrants and refugees.
The meeting highlighted the group's ministry at the Broadview facility, where coalition members regained access after a succesful lawsuit to provide detainees with support.
Abigail Ortiz Valles, a Scalabrinian laywoman, gives Pope Leo XIV photos, letters and messages from people detained in an ICE processing facility near Chicago after the general audience in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican Oct. 28, 2026. She was part of a delegation representing those active with the Chicago-based Coalition for Spiritual and Public Leadership. (CNS photo/Vatican Media)
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Leo XIV received letters and messages from individuals detained in a United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) processing facility near Chicago and from Catholics active in providing immigrants and refugees with spiritual and pastoral support.
Members of the Chicago-based Coalition for Spiritual and Public Leadership gave him an album containing the items when they met with the pope and at the end of the pope's weekly general audience in St. Peter's Square Oct. 28.
"The pope looked visibly moved" while listening to the testimony of Abigail Ortiz Valles, a Scalabrinian laywoman who takes part in the coalition's ministry at the Broadview ICE facility near Chicago, according to the group's Facebook page.
The gift, the Oct. 29 post said, "was a handmade album of photos from our actions of the past year, showered with messages of love, support, and hope from members across our coalition and also from our siblings who are detained in Broadview." Ortiz told the pope their "ministry feels like encountering the face and Passion of Jesus every time she goes in."
About 30 people were part of the delegation greeting the pope; the group included Chicago Auxiliary Bishop José María Garcia-Maldonado and Franciscan Father Richard Rohr.
Many wore yellow T-shirts depicting an image of Our Lady of Guadalupe with her right fist held aloft and a verse about God casting down the mighty and lifting up the lowly from Mary's Magnificat in Lk 1:46-55. They also held a banner saying, "The Church … needs a holy rebellion," a quote from the pope in July urging young people to serve others.
Since immigration enforcement operations started in March 2025, thousands of priests, religious men and women, and laypeople have mobilized. Many more joined protests and calls to activism after the heavily militarized and more controversial "Operation Midway Blitz" was launched by ICE to raid targeted locations and arrest and detain people reported to be illegal immigrants.
"We are bringing visibility to our sisters and brothers being brutally kidnapped, detained, and deported. We are fighting to protect the religious freedom and dignity of immigrant individuals," the coalition said on its website.
The coalition takes part in a variety of events outside the facility, including celebrating Mass and leading Eucharistic processions, as well as conducting pastoral visits inside the ICE facility.
Coalition members had been denied access to the ICE processing center when "Operation Midway Blitz" began in September 2025, but they were allowed to return to provide hundreds of detainees pastoral care after suing the U.S. government and obtaining an injunction.
