A group of religious leaders tried once again Saturday to provide Communion to detainees in the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement processing facility in Broadview and were turned away a second time, three weeks after a similar request was denied.

The Coalition for Spiritual and Public Leadership organized the Mass — which fell on All Saints Day, a Christian holiday to celebrate saints and a holy day of obligation for Catholics — with hopes to gain entry to the ICE facility to offer detainees communion. Organizers said they followed Department of Homeland Security protocol and formally requested access more than one week ahead of the Mass and emailed and hand-delivered a second letter on Thursday. The request was denied, according to a statement from the village of Broadview. No reason was given.

In a statement to the Sun-Times, a DHS spokesperson said any ask to tour its facilities must be approved by DHS Secretary Kristi Noem and that requests “should be made with sufficient time to prevent interference” with the president’s authority to oversee executive department functions.

“A week is sufficient to ensure no intrusion on the president’s constitutional authority,” the DHS spokesperson said, not elaborating on why Saturday’s request was denied despite more than a week’s notice given. The spokesperson also noted increases in obstruction to immigration enforcement.

As the Catholic leaders conducted Mass outside the facility, federal immigration agents periodically drove past, at one point drawing some in the crowd to shout, “Shame!”

A small group of federal agents dressed in military wear stood chatting outside the boarded-up, brick facility as more than 100 people participated in the Mass in designated protest areas outside a nearby business.

Two coach buses with tinted windows later left the de facto detention center, but it wasn’t clear who it was carrying or where it was headed.

People gather for Mass Saturday outside the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Broadview on Saturday. The Coalition for Spiritual and Public Leadership organized the Mass — which fell on All Saints Day, a Christian holiday to celebrate saints and a holy day of obligation for Catholics — with hopes to gain entry to the ICE facility to offer detainees communion.

Michael Okińczyc-Cruz, the coalition’s executive director, said they’ve made several attempts to speak with DHS and ICE officials but were turned down.

“We have tried to follow every channel possible that DHS and ICE publicly shares, but we’ve been denied time and time again,” Okińczyc-Cruz said. “We are here today to continue knocking on ICE’s doors, proclaiming that our sisters and brothers deserve their pastoral care and affirms their God-given dignity, and reminds us all that love is stronger than fear.”

Toward the end of Mass, a few faith leaders, including Sister JoAnn Persch, walked toward the detention center to again request entry. They met halfway with an Illinois State Trooper, who pulled out a phone and called inside the facility to relay the request.

“The officer sincerely tried. The answer was no,” Persch told parishioners, then pausing for two minutes as some teared up.

Joined by hundreds of people, the group previously attempted to provide Communion to those inside the detention center on Oct. 11 and were denied. DHS eventually cited the need for a one-week notice.

Persch, 91, started visiting the ICE facility in Broadview with the late Sister Pat Murphy in 2006 to pray for the immigrants inside, their families and the ICE officers. Their visits inside the building later became a weekly practice, but their relationship with ICE frayed this year as Trump ramped up his deportation campaign in the Chicago area.

“It breaks my heart because we were allowed to go in … and pray and talk with them, work with the families. And now, they won’t even acknowledge us,” Persch told the Sun-Times.

She said she’s praying for the Trump administration to let up on its aggressive immigration enforcement tactics.

An Illinois State Trooper makes a call to the Broadview processing facility to relay a request from religious leaders trying to give Communion to detainees on Saturday. The group’s request was denied a second time in three weeks.

And she hopes to see the detention center shut down, pointing to dire conditions inside that were described in a lawsuit filed Friday by immigrants rights lawyers against the Trump administration’s top immigration enforcement officials on behalf of two men and everyone who’s been jailed in the facility.

The conditions detailed in the lawsuit, which were also previously reported by the Chicago Sun-Times and WBEZ, include overcrowding, poor food, no hygiene products or showers, lack of access to medical care and no access to lawyers.

“If that was an animal shelter, crowded with the filth that we hear is in there, it would be closed down,” Persch said. “…It’s inhumane.”

She and Murphy had to build trust with previous presidential administrations to gain weekly access to the facility, which she has little hope for with the current administration, she said.

“You can’t even talk to anybody,” Persch said. “To build trust, you have to talk as human beings with respect and dignity, and certainly, the immigrants deserve that. And it’s just not happening, and it’s wrong.”

As parishioners left the Mass, dozens of protesters dressed in Halloween costumes — inflatable animals, a xylophone, Jesus and more — descended onto the designated protest areas.

At least two protesters were seen being detained early afternoon as they tried blocking a Broadview police vehicle from exiting the facility.

Moments later, the crowd of protesters moved through Beach Street, outside the protest areas, holding large signs reading, “Free our neighbors” and “State police out of Broadview.”

They approached a line of state troopers holding batons, one of whom who shot pepper balls at the protesters’ feet as they came within about 10 feet of the troopers.

Most of the protesters retreated as troopers, backed by federal agents in the distance, put on gas masks. A few lines of protesters remained close to the troopers, still holding the signs and chanting, “Whose streets? Our streets.”

The crowd moved forward again, causing a trooper to fire more pepper balls and leading to a skirmish in which the troopers pushed the protesters back with batons and took parts of the protesters’ large sign.