‘It’s as if Jesus Is Locked Up in Broadview’

A reverend violently arrested at Chicagoland’s ICE facility speaks out

His protest was his ministry. And it was met with state violence.

On Friday November 14, Rev. Michael Woolf was pulled from a crowd of demonstrators and slammed to the pavement near the notorious ICE building in Broadview, on the outskirts of Chicago. As cameras filmed his arrest, the 35-year-old minister from Lake Street Church in nearby Evanston had the presence of mind to deliver a short sermon: “I’m here because there’s torture in that facility,” Woolf said. “What’s happening here is evil.”

The horrors of the overcrowded Broadview ICE facility have sparked litigation alleging inhumane treatment of immigrants detained there. A lawsuit filed in late October decried the holding facility as fouled by “clogged toilets” as well as “blood, human fluids, and insects.” It advocated on behalf of detainees with limited access to food and water, who’d also been “denied soap, hygiene items, and menstrual products, and… have no way to clean themselves.”

A federal judge responded in early November with a temporary restraining order demanding the Trump administration remedy the “serious conditions” at Broadview, mandating the facility provide sufficient food and drinking water; clean bedding; and access to counsel.

The deplorable conditions at the ICE facility have fueled the passion of Broadview protesters. And in recent weeks, Chicagoland religious leaders have taken a leading role at these demonstrations — including several who have been arrested and one who was shot with a pepper ball to the head.

Amid this crackdown on clergy, Woolf’s arrest stands out. A Reuters photo of the reverend in his clerical collar — staring unflinching into the camera as state troopers press his body to the ground — offers a visual indictment of how Trump’s agenda is upending the nation’s values. (“I’m OK,” Woolf posted later, “though I was thrown to the ground and choked with my pectoral cross.”)

The Contrarian spoke to Woolf by phone on Sunday, shortly after services at his church. Originally from Alabama, Woolf speaks plainly, with a slight twang. He has been a minister at his progressive, Baptist-affiliated church in Evanston for more than six years, and he also holds a doctorate from Harvard Divinity School.

In the interview, Woolf described why he felt compelled to demonstrate at Broadview, and why he believes people of good conscience cannot stand silent in the face of the administration’s abuse of the most vulnerable among us — the undocumented.

The following transcript has been edited for length and clarity.

What brought you out to protest in recent weeks?

I have been coming to Broadview because we’re presented with a spiritual emergency. What’s happening at that Broadview facility — we know from accounts and from the court cases — is torture. A judge recently compared it to Auschwitz.

The dehumanization that’s happening, when ICE comes in and kidnaps our neighbors and puts them in that facility, is egregious. It’s important for clergy, for people of faith, for religious leaders like myself, to raise their voice.

The declarations from people who have been detained at Broadview are horrific. The government has defied standards of basic hygiene, not provided enough water, limited food, not provided access to lawyers…

And no spiritual care, I would add. Our demand has always been that that facility gets shut down. But if it’s not going to get shut down, that the people in there have access to spiritual care.

Walk us through the events that led you up to your arrest.

We were having a prayer service. And people were talking about how important it was for our neighbors [detained] there to understand that we haven’t forgotten them. Some clergy decided that they wanted the folks in that facility to be able to hear us — because it’s hard to hear from the “First Amendment zone” [where police have corralled demonstrators.] We wanted to get closer. And we were immediately met with violence and by a host of local police, Cook County Sheriff [deputies], and the Illinois State Police.

Help folks understand the setup at Broadview. Where is the ‘First Amendment zone’?

The “First Amendment zone” is located very far away. It makes it hard to connect what we’re doing there to the facility, when it’s hard to even see it down the street. It’s a pretty lousy thing. I do want to say that it’s the so-called First Amendment zone, right? It’s being litigated right now, whether those zones are even legal. I personally think they are not. America is a First Amendment zone.

Watching video of your arrest, it didn’t appear that you were acting aggressively. The cops just grabbed you and threw you down.

I’m a very gentle human being. It takes a lot to move me to be out there in the first place. I am 100 percent committed to nonviolence. I was telling the officers that we mean you absolutely no harm, that we’re peaceably assembled. And in that clerical collar, I posed absolutely no threat.

I was singled out because of some of the things that I’ve been saying to them — calling attention to the fact that they’re protecting the concentration camp, and that they have choices to make. I don’t think they liked what I had to say to them.

I was slammed on the ground, put in restraints, and flipped over like I was some big, bad person who was posing a threat.

Was there a specific trigger before they grabbed you?

I was grabbed when there was a lull, and nothing was going on. But the second-in-command there pointed at me and said, “He’s going.” And so I went. There’s nothing to do once they decide that.

What charges do you face?

I’ve been charged with disorderly conduct, resisting or obstructing a peace officer, and walking on the highway.

Those charges are still pending?

I have a court date on December 3.

As a citizen, I want to say that’s absurd.

Those are state charges, too. So I’ll hold the governor and the attorney general in direct responsibility for those charges. They can be dropped at any time, and they won’t be, I’m pretty sure.

There is cognitive dissonance there. The governor has been so outspoken about how what Trump is doing in Chicagoland is wrong. Yet Illinois troopers have also been cracking down on demonstrators at Broadview.

I like J.B. Pritzker. He’s a very effective spokesperson and fighting against this stuff. I love what he’s saying. I don’t like what he’s doing. So he has a credibility problem to me, because he’s deployed to the Illinois State Police and spent a ton of Illinois state resources on, quote, “protecting protesters.”

I’ve never faced as much violence in my life as I have from Illinois State Police. I would really like for the governor to watch the video of my arrest and answer whether he thought that was an appropriate use of force. Or if that is how he wants Illinois State Police resources to be used — throwing pastors on the ground for expressing their First Amendment rights.

The federal government was cheering on this crackdown. The Department of Homeland Security, on the day that you were arrested, trollishly tweeted out: “Womp, womp, cry all you want. These criminal illegal aliens aren’t getting released.” It added: “Get a job, you imbecilic morons.” What do you make of that?

They routinely lie. Lying is part of how they make it out like we’re radical people. But we’re regular people of faith who are shocked by what our government is doing.

I have a job — as a pastor of a church. And we’re not “imbecilic morons.” We’re religious leaders who believe that what’s happening in that facility is torture. My faith calls me to take it very seriously. Because what happens to the most vulnerable is like what’s happening to Jesus Christ. So for me, it’s as if Jesus is locked up in Broadview.

Expand on that.

The gospel calls me to take risks, especially on behalf of the most vulnerable. If you look at Matthew 25 we’re told that the most vulnerable people are where God is. And God identifies with the most vulnerable people. So whatever we do or withhold from those people, we do or withhold from Jesus.

The issue becomes: If I’m not going to show up at Broadview, if I’m not going to fight for these folks to get released, then I’m not fighting for Jesus to get released. That’s a very basic scriptural tenet of God and Jesus’ identification with the most vulnerable in our society — which has to be undocumented people. Which have to be the people locked in that facility. I don’t think there’s any other way to understand them.

How I act has to be in accordance with that understanding. I don’t have much choice as a person of faith than to show up there.

There are many religious conservatives who appear to back what Trump is doing.

The Trump administration has weaponized faith — and specifically Christianity — as though you would think all Christians love Donald Trump. That is absolutely not true. When I put on the collar, for some people, I’m representing the church. And It’s a healing experience. It’s actually pastoral care when you go there [to Broadview], for people to know that the church actually cares about something.

The bible talks a lot about the treatment of “the stranger.” How does that influence you?

You look at the covenant agreements in the Hebrew Bible, they’re full of these references that you’re supposed to treat the stranger “as one among you.” And how you treat the stranger is actually an ethical test of whether or not you are living in God’s world, or if you’re living by your selfish desire.

If you’re going to treat the widow, the orphan, or the stranger poorly, then God’s really not interested in the other religious stuff that you might be doing. That’s really important for Christians to know. The moral test is not what we say from pulpits. It’s not what we do in churches. The moral test is whether we put our faith in action, and we actually pray with our feet and pray with our hands.

Can you speak about the government’s treatment of immigrants more broadly?

We have denied people access to citizenship and the rights that come with it. That is a moral travesty. But [mass-deportation] is a new kind of cruelty. A lot of people voted for Trump because of how he was going to handle immigration. Somehow people thought that immigration enforcement could be done in a compassionate kind of way. I hope Americans are learning a lesson about how there is no nice way to rip someone out of a community.

Tell us about your own congregation.

I’m in the unique position that my congregation supports the work that I do on justice. I don’t have to worry about people being upset at me. They support my ministry. It’s an Alliance of Baptists and American Baptist Churches USA congregation. It’s committed to peace and justice and interfaith dialog. It is around 350 members. It is mostly white. It’s been a sanctuary congregation for over a decade, and there’s a family that lives there, and has for a while.

For folks who are not familiar with the idea of sanctuary, can you expand on that?

The sanctuary movement is where churches give sanctuary to undocumented folks and walk alongside them and commit to protecting them from an unjust administration to the extent that they can.

Any other thoughts that you want to leave with our readers?

I would like to draw attention to the idea of “violent rioters” [that the government posted about on X]. I’ve heard this characterization that some police officers were injured. And if they were, I wish them an absolutely speedy recovery. But I want to entertain the possibility that these police officers might have been injured with inappropriate uses of force and inappropriate tactics on protesters.

It’s not shocking to me that they would wind up injured when they’re pushing; when they’re using their truncheons inappropriately; when they are hitting protesters in the chest. I do think that injuries can occur. But it’s not because pastors are out there throwing hands.

Tim Dickinson is the Senior Political Writer for The Contrarian