Maryland bishop stands alongside Kilmar Abrego García before ICE detains him a second time

[Episcopal News Service] Maryland Bishop Carrie Schofield-Broadbent was among dozens of clergy who took part in an Aug. 25 rally in support of Kilmar Abrego García before he was detained at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement field office in Baltimore.

According to the Associated Press, some 200 people gathered, prayed and crowded around Abrego García as he reported to a scheduled visit at the ICE office, where he was detained. When his lawyer and wife walked out without him, the crowd yelled “Shame,” the AP reported.

Abrego García, a Salvadoran national, has lived in Maryland for 14 years and has been at the center of an immigration battle with the Trump administration since March when he was detained by ICE and mistakenly deported to El Salvador. According to reporting by National Public Radio, he was returned to the United States in April and was immediately detained by the U.S. government on charges of human smuggling. He was held in a Tennessee jail until he was released on Aug. 22 to await trial in Maryland, NPR said.

ABC reported that after Abrego García declined a government offer to be deported to Costa Rica in exchange for remaining in jail and pleading guilty to the human smuggling charges, his attorneys said ICE informed them that he could be deported to Uganda and ordered him to report to their office in Baltimore on Aug. 25.

After he was detained on Aug. 25 in Baltimore, his attorneys filed a lawsuit to fight his deportation until a court could hear his request for protection. According to the AP, the lawsuit “triggered a blanket court order that automatically pauses deportation efforts for two days.”

He now is being held at an ICE detention facility in Virginia.

In an interview with Episcopal News Service, Schofield-Broadbent said she was invited to take part in the rally by the office of Washington Bishop Marianne Budde, noting that because of their geographic proximity, the two bishops speak often. Abrego García, his wife and their child have been living in Maryland’s Prince George’s County, which is part of the Diocese of Washington.

Before deciding to attend, the bishop thought about it, she said, to make sure her attendance wouldn’t be simply performative. She decided to take part because she wanted people to see “that there are ways of being Christian and following Jesus that don’t look like following blindly behind Christian nationalism.”

She added, “I want whoever is looking to see Christians standing up for mercy and justice and liberation.”

The Rev. Steve Holt, rector of the Church of the Guardian Angel in Remington, Maryland, also took part, she said.

Schofield-Broadbent, who wore her purple bishop’s shirt and pectoral cross, said she knew she was asked to stand near the podium because event organizers often put people “who look like they have some standing in the community front and center.”

She found herself next to Abrego García and his wife and across from Rabbi Ariana Katz, who had been asked to offer a final blessing. Katz asked Schofield-Broadbent if she spoke Spanish, which she does, so she was able to translate a portion of it into Abrego García’s native language.

Schofield-Broadbent said she also whispered her own blessing in his ear. “I know he’s a man of faith, so I thought maybe having a blessing from a clergyperson would be helpful.”

At the rally, Schofield-Broadbent joined clergy representing a variety of Christian denominations, as well as Jewish, Buddhist and Unitarian Universalist traditions, according to Religion News Service.

Taking part in the rally, she said, “felt like I was offering everything I had, and it was absolutely not enough to change the outcome” of Abrego García’s detention.

— Melodie Woerman is an Episcopal News Service freelance reporter based in Kansas.