Parishioners of All Saints Episcopal Church in Chicago, Illinois, gathered at Daley Plaza with more than 30,000 other people for Chicago’s “Hands Off” protest. “Hands Off” is an ongoing series of demonstrations held so far in every U.S. state and some European cities to protest the Trump administration’s policies and billionaire Elon Musk’s involvement with significantly downsizing the federal government. April 5, 2025. Photo: Courtesy of Courtney Reid
[Episcopal News Service] On Palm Sunday, April 13, All Saints Episcopal Church in Chicago, Illinois, will lead a procession through the Ravenswood neighborhood after its 11 a.m. Central worship service to bring attention to migrants who’ve been arrested and are being illegally detained in El Salvador and Louisiana. Many have disappeared from the U.S. detainee tracking system.
The Rev. Courtney Reid, associate rector of All Saints, told Episcopal News Service that the post-worship procession is in line with the message of Palm Sunday, when the Galileans greeted Jesus as he entered Jerusalem with shouts of “Hosanna,” a word originating from Hebrew meaning “save us.”
“Regardless if there are reasons that someone should be deported for a crime they’ve committed, treating people as if they aren’t human is absolutely antithetical to the Gospel, and yet that is what our government is doing, and our political leaders aren’t standing against it,” Reid said.
Last month – under the Alien Enemies Act, a law not invoked since World War II – the United States sent 238 Venezuelan migrants to a maximum-security prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, under a “renewable” one-year agreement with the Salvadoran government. The Trump administration alleges the detained migrants have ties to the Venezuelan gang known as Tren de Aragua. However, many of the migrants’ families and lawyers insist they have no gang ties. Documents show that about 90% of the incarcerated migrants had no U.S. criminal record. Moving the migrants to a prison in another country without due process has also sparked outcry from relatives, lawyers and immigration advocates.
The prison, the Terrorism Confinement Center, or CECOT, has been criticized for alleged human rights abuses since it opened in 2023. CECOT allegedly denies inmates communication with family and lawyers, and inmates are permitted just 30 minutes a day to leave their cell, according to Human Rights Watch, an international nongovernmental organization that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. The inmates also supposedly sleep on metal beds in overcrowded, windowless cells.
“It’s such a breach of humanity; the level of dehumanization is obscene and immoral,” Reid said.
Many immigrants who are legally in the United States with visas or green cards have also been arrested and have been deported or face deportation, including Rümeysa Öztürk, a Turkish doctoral student at Tufts University in Massachusetts, and Mahmoud Khalil, a Palestinian lawful permanent U.S. resident. Both are being detained in Louisiana.
“When the image of God – a human being – is being violated, Christians must say something about that if we truly believe in the dignity of every human being,” the Rev. Suzanne Willie, rector of All Saints, told ENS. “Christians cannot be silent about what’s going on in our world.”
During the post-worship procession, parishioners will carry signs protesting the migrants’ imprisonment. Some banners will include photos of Öztürk and Khalil, as well as Neri Jose Alvarado Borges and Andry Hernandez Romero. Alvarado Borges was sent to CECOT because the U.S. government alleges that his many tattoos are proof that he’s affiliated with Tren de Aragua. Hernandez Romero, a gay makeup artist, was sent to CECOT while his asylum case was pending, also for his tattoos allegedly representing Tren de Aragua affiliation. The other banners will include photos of anonymous women who, according to The New York Times, are at risk of dying from the Trump administration’s foreign aid freeze and photos of anonymous CECOT prisoners being pushed down and frog-marched in their cells.
“None of these people can reach their lawyers or loved ones,” Willie said. “It’s like our government is trying to make them disappear and wipe them from our consciousness.”
On April 5, Reid and a group of parishioners gathered at Daley Plaza with more than 30,000 other people for Chicago’s “Hands Off” protest. “Hands Off” is an ongoing series of demonstrations held so far in every U.S. state and some European cities to protest the Trump administration’s policies and billionaire Elon Musk’s involvement in significantly downsizing the federal government.
Coming off the same “energy” from “Hands Off,” Reid said the plan for the Palm Sunday processional is to publicly walk outside of residential spaces to ensure that as many people as possible read the anti-migrant imprisonment signs.
Jacob Farmer, a parishioner at All Saints who participated in “Hands Off,” told ENS plans to participate in the Palm Sunday procession with the same goals for justice in mind.
“I believe that it’s important as community members and as Christians to show up and demonstrate that we care about what’s going on, and that we do not agree with the current administration’s actions,” he said in a text message.
Willie said the mistreatment of migrants reminds her of when she was in seminary school 20 years ago, when the dean asked, “where were the Christians?” when it was brought to widespread public attention in 2004 that the U.S. Army and CIA were torturing detainees at Abu Ghraib Prison in Iraq during the Iraq War.
“That question has haunted me for 20 years,” Willie said. “Where were the Christians speaking out against Abu Ghraib and Guantánamo Bay then, and where are the Christians today now that we’re sending migrants to Guantánamo Bay as well as El Salvador and Louisiana? There’s power in speaking up, but also in choosing to be silent.”
-Shireen Korkzan is a reporter and assistant editor for Episcopal News Service. She can be reached at skorkzan@episcopalchurch.org.