(RNS) — Prosecutors have dropped charges against a group of religious leaders who were arrested during a faith-led protest outside of a Department of Homeland Security facility last fall, offering a reprieve even as the clergy noted that others are still facing a legal battle.
On Monday (Feb. 9), the state attorney’s office of Cook County, Illinois, announced it was dropping charges against 19 of the 21 people who were arrested at a demonstration in Broadview, Illinois, in November, according to the Chicago Sun-Times. At least seven of those arrested during the protest were faith leaders who had gathered at the site to condemn the actions of DHS agents and the agency’s refusal to allow clergy to offer Communion and pastoral care to immigrant detainees inside.
The Rev. Michael Woolf, an American Baptist minister who pastors Lake Street Church of Evanston, Illinois, was among those who had their charges dropped. In a text exchange with Religion News Service, Woolf said the state-level charges brought against him and others were “egregious.” He also made reference to his dramatic arrest, which he told RNS left him with bruises all over his body.
“There is nothing like seeing the law enforcement officers who abused you look confused as the states attorney dismisses your charges,” Woolf wrote. “They never should have been brought in the first place.”
Woolf said that while he welcomed the news, he wanted to keep the focus on “the injustice done to migrants in that facility” and on what he called “evil tactics” used by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.
“What I suffered wa …