Some of those gathered in front of Kane County’s judicial center in St. Charles on Wednesday were in everyday clothes, others donned stoles and other religious attire.
Signs proclaimed things like “Justice for our neighbors” and “ICE strips peoples’ humanity.”
There was a lot of singing, along with some prayers.
“Our love for each other will carry us through,” the group sang in call-and-response.
On Wednesday, the Coalition of Elgin Religious Leaders, an interfaith council, hosted a prayer gathering at Kane County’s judicial center meant as a show of support for immigrants amid continued federal immigration enforcement activity in and around Chicago.
The gathering comes during what immigration experts are saying is a shift in federal immigration enforcement strategy.
Roughly a year after last fall’s Operation Midway Blitz, which saw the tear-gassing of neighborhoods in Chicago, agents who pointed guns and other weapons at bystanders and the arrests of thousands, immigration enforcement has not ended in Chicago or its surrounding suburbs.
But immigration experts have more recently reported an uptick of arrests at routine check-ins and criminal courthouses. In some cases, those detained are individuals facing minor criminal charges or whose cases remain unresolved — the latter meaning they have not been convicted of any offense.
Kane County’s judicial center, outside of which Wednesday’s gathering was held, has been no exception. It’s also been the site of protesting, social media posts show.
The Coalition of Elgin Religious Leaders, or CERL, is not new to gathering outside of court facilities, explained Mark Weinert, the lead pastor at First Christian Church in Elgin and the coalition’s co-president. The group has been gathering outside of Elgin’s courthouse on the first Wednesday of the month since the beginning of this year to stand in solidarity with their immigrant neighbors.
A month or so ago, Weinert said, some of the council were in a meeting and heard about increased federal immigration activity happening at local courthouses, including Kane County’s. Weinert said his group hadn’t seen folks being targeted at the courthouse while they gathered in Elgin, but that instances of that were happening at the county building.
So the group discussed it, he recounted, and they decided to gather in September at the judicial center in St. Charles.
“People are going, just trying to do their due diligence, trying to follow the law … trying to check in,” Weinert told The Beacon-News, “and then being picked up. And so we thought, you know, yeah, we thought we needed to kind of be there and be present.”
In keeping with new county rules about protesting at courthouses, the group of about two dozen that gathered Wednesday was told to relocate from the sidewalk to a grassy area across the street from the building before they could begin their event, as people entered and exited the judicial center building.
More Top Picks Best Rice Cooker And Steamer
The judicial center, along with other court facilities in Kane County, has been subject to new guidelines implemented earlier this year regarding both how apprehensions at courthouses are conducted and how individuals can protest there.
Several months ago, the 16th Judicial Circuit issued new guidelines meant to “clarify expectations for members of the public and law enforcement on courthouse property and provide procedures designed to protect constitutional rights while ensuring safety and uninterrupted court access,” a June news release from the circuit court said.
A general order from May, which aims to lay out the “current working practice regarding the apprehension of individuals in the courthouses,” includes guidelines like asking that officers notify court security and local law enforcement before apprehending individuals at or near courthouses and that they only apprehend an individual after their court event is over.
Then, in June, a second order set guidelines for protests and assembly “concerning immigration enforcement, federal agencies, state agencies, local law enforcement agencies, or any other governmental entity occurring on or near court property.”
That order outlined restrictions such as restricting demonstrations to “designated public assembly areas” — at the judicial center, that means the public lawn area adjacent to the public sidewalk at least 100 feet from any judicial center entrance. It also prohibits things like “driv(ing) erratically through parking lots or access roads serving court facilities;” chasing or running after law enforcement officers, court personnel or vehicles; and using amplified sound within 250 feet of a courtroom while court is in session.
The order instructs protestors to “remain calm and non-confrontational,” not physically interfere with law enforcement activities and to document what is happening at the location “only from lawful public locations.” It doesn’t, however, prohibit things like signs, chanting, singing or the distribution of literature within the designated assembly areas.
Since then, the rules have generated some discussion and garnered some criticism.
For example, in a letter to county officials, the Illinois chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union said the June order addressing protest at court facilities “explicitly singles out” speech related to immigration enforcement or other law enforcement, and clarified what activities would still be permitted on the property. The ACLU chapter indicated that it is concerned about issues faced by rapid responders who observe and document ICE activity at the judicial center, and said it believes the county’s guidelines “(raise) fundamental constitutional questions.”
As for Wednesday’s gathering, Weinert emphasized that the Elgin coalition’s recent efforts are not designed to be a protest, per se.
The point of the group’s gathering is “not to disrupt, but to bear witness,” he said at the start of Wednesday’s event, particularly in a place that, in recent months, “has become a place of fear” for some members of the community.
“People cannot be reduced to a case number, or a legal status,” Weinert said. “And so we stand here today as people of faith, and simply as people, to say to our immigrant neighbors: you are seen, you are not forgotten, you are not alone. You are part of our community.”
“It is a reoccurring theme throughout our shared scripture, reflecting God’s heart for justice, diversity and compassion,” he continued. “Often, these people are named in our scriptures: the orphan, the widow, the immigrant … We know immigration is complicated … but there is nothing complicated about how human beings should be treated, nothing partisan about basic kindness.”
The group gathered on Wednesday did not shout or chant, but sang and prayed. Led by the Rev. Thea Kornelius of First Presbyterian Church in Elgin, the group repeated the line, “We stand with our neighbors.” They took a moment of silence, and Rabbi Margaret Frisch Klein, of Elgin’s Congregation Kneseth Israel, blew the shofar, a ritual instrument typically made out of a hollow ram’s horn and played like a trumpet.
The issue of immigration is not new to Klein, who told The Beacon-News that she’s been working on these issues for years. She said she feels she has a “moral imperative” to show her support, pointing also to the targeting of Jewish people over the years.
“So I keep speaking up,” she said.
In addition to the courthouse gatherings, Elgin-based clergy also work with members of the community who operate more “on the front lines,” Weinert told The Beacon-News, in terms of providing things like food and supplies for the immigrant community. Some of the group’s congregations have hosted “Know Your Rights” trainings, too.
“We just want folks to know that people of faith are, are seeing, and we are standing with them,” he said. “And we’re here to support them and their families in whatever way we can.”
The Rev. Alan Taylor, of the Unitarian Universalist Society of Geneva, told The Beacon-News at Wednesday’s gathering he’s also done a lot of “faith-based organizing” in and around Chicago over the past decade. He’s gone to Springfield to advocate for funding for immigration-related work, took a multi-faith delegation to the Mexican border during President Donald Trump’s first term, and more recently has found himself at the Broadview detention facility.
But now is an “especially scary time,” according to Taylor, pointing to what he called “cruel policies.” He says he’s personally seen a person detained near his home in Oak Park.
“I really believe in moral witness, and in advocacy,” he said on Wednesday. “This is a time for moral voices, and that’s why I’m here.”