Illinois bill would allow detainees access to religious counselors

Published: 2008-05-09

CHICAGO (CNS) -- Mercy Sisters JoAnn Persch and Pat Murphy didn't know too much about the system faced by immigrants who are about to be deported when they started praying outside the Broadview detention center last year. But their community, the Sisters of Mercy of the Americas, had committed itself to stand in solidarity with immigrants. When the sisters asked what they could do to support immigrants, Elena Segura, director of the Catholic Campaign for Immigration Reform for the Archdiocese of Chicago, suggested they join the regular Friday morning prayer vigil in suburban Broadview. Friday is the day detainees leave the Broadview holding facility on their way to deportation. There, the sisters met the relatives of immigrants about to be deported. Then they saw how the hearings leading to deportation were handled: with the hearing officer in Chicago and the detainee appearing on video, usually from the McHenry County Jail in Woodstock. The two Chicago-based sisters are among the advocates for a bill in the Illinois House of Representatives which would require that detainees have access to visits from religious ministers or clergy.

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