(RNS) — In video recorded on Friday (Nov. 4) outside the embattled U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Broadview, Illinois, the Rev. Michael Woolf stands alongside fellow protesters, fiddling awkwardly with his backpack as faith leaders and other protesters chant slogans at a line of police officers. A moment later, one officer can be seen walking forward, grabbing Woolf by the wrist and yanking.
Demonstrators attempted to hold on to Woolf, who was a clerical collar, but four officers wrenched him from the crowd and tossed him to the ground. After turning him onto his stomach, officers proceeded to arrest Woolf, and removed him to the Cook County Sheriff’s Office in Maywood, Illinois.
“I’ve got bruises all over my body,” Woolf, an American Baptist minister who is pastor of Lake Street Church of Evanston, Illinois, told Religion News Service. He was speaking in his first interview since being released Friday afternoon after about seven hours in custody.
Woolf said when he asked the arresting officers to loosen the plastic handcuffs that were causing his hands to go numb, an officer replied: “Nobody wants to talk to you — shut the f–k up.”
“It’s part of the dehumanizing nature of it, and it’s it gives me a lot of clarity around what’s happening here,” said Woolf, who has been active in protests against ICE. “It’s really a spiritual emergency.”
Footage and images of Woolf’s arrest were shared widely on the internet on Friday, drawing attention to the demonstration at the ICE facility, where protests have become commonplace in recent weeks. Organizers said at least 100 faith leaders of various faiths and denominations came to the Broadview facility, providing a climax to religious pushback to “Operation Midway Blitz,” a mass deportation effort that has rounded up hundreds of undocumented immigrants and other Chicago residents since it was launched in September. Recent reports say that many immigration agents who have been operating in the city, particularly U.S. Border Patrol officers, are being transferred to Charlotte, North Carolina.
Cook County Police said 21 people were arrested at the demonstration, all but one of whom were charged with “Obstruction/Disorderly Conduct/Pedestrian Walking on Highways.” Participants said at least seven of those arrested were faith leaders from Presbyterian, Lutheran, Baptist, Unitarian Universalist, and Jewish traditions.
The Department of Homeland Security did not reply immediately to a request for comment, but on Friday a post on the department’s X feed seemed to mock the protest participants, saying, “Womp womp, cry all you want. These criminal illegal aliens aren’t getting released,” the post read.
The post called the demonstrators “violent rioters” and “imbecilic morons” who need to “get a job.”
Asked about the DHS statement, Woolf said he and other protesters were “demanding constitutional and due process rights” for detainees, adding, “I believe that justice will come in this life or the next.”
“I know which side I choose. I choose the gospel,” he added.