Pope Leo XIV Calls for ICE to Allow Clergy Access to Detained Migrants

Pope Leo XIV issued a direct challenge to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement on November 4, 2025, calling on ICE authorities to allow pastoral workers and clergy to minister to detained migrants. Speaking from Castel Gandolfo, the papal summer residence, Pope Leo XIV stated he “would certainly invite the authorities to allow pastoral workers to attend to the needs” of migrants in ICE detention, while calling for “deep reflection” on the broader treatment of detained immigrants. The statement came amid growing controversy over ICE’s denial of religious access at multiple detention facilities, most notably the Broadview ICE Processing Center near Chicago—the Pope’s hometown.

The timing and specificity of the Pope’s statement was significant. Just three days later, on November 7, 2025, ICE would formally ban Catholic deacons and priests from entering the Broadview facility to offer Communion and other sacraments to detained migrants—a policy that Cardinal Blase Cupich of Chicago would immediately denounce as a “violation of religious freedom.” Pope Leo XIV’s November 4 statement appeared to anticipate this religious freedom crisis, suggesting the Vatican had advance knowledge of ICE’s plans to restrict clergy access. The Broadview facility, located within the Chicago Archdiocese that the Pope had called home, made the issue deeply personal for the first American pontiff.

The Pope’s intervention represented an extraordinary moment of direct papal confrontation with U.S. law enforcement policy. Pope Leo XIV was explicitly invoking the Catholic Church’s teaching on the fundamental right to pastoral care and the sacraments, arguing that government detention does not eliminate these religious freedoms. His call for “deep reflection” on the treatment of migrants echoed his earlier October statement linking pro-life values to humane immigration policy, establishing a consistent pattern of Vatican criticism of the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement. The fact that an American Pope was publicly challenging American immigration authorities created an unprecedented diplomatic and religious freedom crisis, with Cardinal Cupich serving as the local ecclesiastical authority forced to navigate between his Pope’s directives and his government’s policies. The November 7 Broadview ban would prove that ICE was unwilling to heed even the Pope’s direct appeal for pastoral access.