With the increased presence of agents from the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement throughout the Chicago area, parishes with large populations of people who are undocumented are seeing a decrease in Mass attendance.

Some parishioners opt for staying home instead of attending Masses or devotions or sending their children to religious education classes, parish leaders say.

Many parishes now station watchers outside Masses to alert worshippers of the presence of ICE agents before they exit the church.

In mid-October, news media reported that agents were stationed outside St. Jerome Church in Rogers Park during Sunday morning Mass and parish staff cautioned parishioners to beware when leaving the church.

Father Juan Carlos Vargas, associate pastor of Our Lady of the Rosary Parish, 3935 N. Melvina Ave., said the fear has been present since January, but recently escalated.

“It reached a new point this past month, where attendance went down 50 to 75 people, so it wasn’t very drastic. But what was drastic was the attendance for religious ed and the other extracurriculars,” he said.

Some families started carpooling to classes and others asked for virtual classes for their children so they didn’t have to leave home. Other archdiocesan parishes have also switched to virtual classes.

Recently, Vargas has seen spouses attend different Masses.

“Just in case if anything does happen, it’s only one family member that’s stopped or detained,” he said. “We have parishioners who only speak Spanish, but who have started coming to English Masses because there is a sense that if [ICE] are going to come they are going to come during a Spanish Mass.” 

Older parishioners who are not Hispanic tell Vargas that they now carry their passports with them because they too are afraid of being stopped by agents, he said.

But there has been some positives.

“What I do hear a lot of is hope, hope that the one place that they feel comfort and peace is at Mass,” he said. “People who do show up, they come with an open heart and just trust in the Lord and just praying that everything goes well.”

During homilies, Vargas said he tells all parishioners, regardless of ethnicity or race, that this is a moment when they can live their faith by checking in on others. He also encourages praying for ICE agents and government leaders.

“I’m grateful that I’ve been able to have that position to be able to preach about it, be able to share people’s stories through the ambo so that people can talk about it amongst themselves,” Vargas said. “There’s a sense of fear, but there’s also a sense of silence.”

In January, some parishioners left the country voluntarily, he said.

They were parishioners who had attended the parish for years; one person started the Spanish Mass at the parish.

“They’d been here in Chicago in that area for 25 years,” Vargas said. “She had a daycare center.”

To show solidarity with parishioners who are afraid to leave their homes, St. Procopius Parish in Pilsen organized a Eucharistic procession through the neighborhood on Oct. 26.

“We are a church that lives in hope and love, and so we felt that there was a need to be in solidarity with the immigrant community who, in many ways, are in fear,” said Deacon Rafael Yanez. “And we’re seeing the anxiety that is taking place in their heart, so we felt the need to respond with what we know, which is our faith, and to send a message of unity and hope.”

About 150 people joined the procession after Mass, singing and praying the rosary on the walk.

“All the time we were praying and keeping in mind what is happening in our country and our world and praying for peace and invoking the God who’s alive and walking with us in the midst of our pain and our struggles,” Yanez said. 

People they passed during the procession reacted to seeing them.

“I saw a lot of people making the sign of the cross,” he said. “They were sitting in the restaurants and they paused whatever conversations that they had and made the sign of the cross. People that were driving, they did the same thing.”

In addition to the public witness, parishioners have organized to do grocery shopping for people afraid to go out, he said.

“And just being available to them, maybe they need a ride somewhere,” Yanez said. “This is a time to come together and find what are the ways we can be better brothers and sisters.”