{"id":3147,"date":"2026-07-10T19:05:53","date_gmt":"2026-07-10T14:05:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=3147"},"modified":"2026-07-10T19:05:53","modified_gmt":"2026-07-10T14:05:53","slug":"ice-arrested-a-nun-on-her-way-to-church-does-maga-care","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=3147","title":{"rendered":"ICE arrested a nun on her way to church. Does MAGA care?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"zephr-anchor\">\n<div class=\"duet--article--article-body-component\">\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _10sa9omi itxwjq1 itxwjq0 pn04iq1\">On June 28, Sister Leticia \u201cLetty\u201d Ugboaja, a Catholic nun from Nigeria, stepped out of her home to take the short, one-block stroll to her church in McAllen, Texas. It should have been uneventful: dressed in her white habit and bearing a rosary, Sister Letty was walking to Sunday morning mass at Our Lady of Sorrows.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"duet--article--article-body-component\">\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _10sa9omi itxwjq1 itxwjq0 pn04iq1\">She didn\u2019t make it \u2014 US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents <a href=\"https:\/\/www.texastribune.org\/2026\/06\/30\/texas-mcallen-nun-ice-detention-sister-letty\/\">stopped, arrested<\/a>, and <a href=\"https:\/\/migrantinsider.com\/p\/ice-confiscated-a-roman-catholic\">handcuffed<\/a> the 56-year-old. They took her to a detention facility an hour away, reportedly confiscated her rosary, and declined to bring her the medication she takes. She called her diocese for help \u2014 and as news spread, both Republican and Democratic members of Congress appealed directly to Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin for details. Hours later, she was released \u2014 without explanation.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"duet--article--article-body-component\">\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _10sa9omi itxwjq1 itxwjq0 pn04iq1\">Plenty of questions surrounding this incident remain. According to her diocese, Sister Letty had worked as a registered nurse in the area for about a decade and entered the country legally.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"duet--article--article-body-component\">\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _10sa9omi itxwjq1 itxwjq0 pn04iq1\">But the incident is not a one-off \u2014 and instead is representative of a concerning trend in America over the last year. Though ICE and President Donald Trump\u2019s immigration enforcement activities have receded from national headlines, Sister Letty\u2019s detention shows how two forces are clashing in the second Trump term: the drive for hardline immigration enforcement and the constitutional imperative of preserving religious liberty and free exercise in America.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"duet--article--article-body-component\">\n<p><h2 class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup\">The tightening of federal immigration enforcement around religious spaces and believers<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"duet--article--article-body-component\">\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _10sa9omi itxwjq1 itxwjq0 pn04iq1\">The last year of Trump\u2019s mass deportation program has produced many cases like Sister Letty\u2019s \u2014 even if they haven\u2019t made national news. Federal immigration agents have detained and harassed Catholic, Protestant, and Muslim chaplains and priests, while sparking fear across denominations \u2014 particularly as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vox.com\/politics\/476007\/ice-minnesota-religious-priest-pastor-faith-immigration-deportation-protest-st-paul-minneapolis-catholic-evangelical\">religious leaders and communities organized and led responses<\/a> to immigration crackdowns across the country.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"duet--article--article-body-component\">\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _10sa9omi itxwjq1 itxwjq0 pn04iq1\">Both the Department of Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Sister Letty\u2019s case, or other religious liberty concerns. They have also not responded to requests for comment to other local and national outlets in the case of Sister Letty.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"duet--article--article-body-component\">\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _10sa9omi itxwjq1 itxwjq0 pn04iq1\">In November, the Episcopal bishop of Texas reported that a Kenyan priest working for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ncronline.org\/news\/texas-episcopal-diocese-says-one-its-priests-has-been-detained-ice\">had been detained by ICE<\/a> while leaving his workplace and transferred to a detention facility. His diocesan leaders said he was working in the US legally, and had the proper documentation to be in the US. In July 2025, a Muslim hospital chaplain in Ohio <a href=\"https:\/\/religionnews.com\/2025\/09\/22\/tears-of-joy-as-egyptian-immigrant-and-cincinnati-chaplain-is-released-from-detention\/\">was arrested and detained<\/a> during an immigration check-in. An Egyptian immigrant, he was held in detention for weeks before finally being released. And earlier this year, Catholic Cardinal Blase Cupich of Chicago reported that priests in his archdiocese have been <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ncronline.org\/news\/cardinal-cupich-says-feds-stopped-priests-demanded-citizenship-proof\">stopped by federal agents and ordered<\/a> to prove their citizenship. That\u2019s all on top of clergy who were shot at with pepper balls or sprayed with tear gas at anti-ICE protests in Illinois and California.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"duet--article--article-body-component\">\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _10sa9omi itxwjq1 itxwjq0 pn04iq1\">Yet this clash has shown up not just through harassment of clergy and those dedicated to religious life, but also in restrictions on how those in detention receive pastoral care, how those trying to provide that care are allowed to operate, and whether places of worship can be free of a federal presence.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"duet--article--article-body-component\">\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _10sa9omi itxwjq1 itxwjq0 pn04iq1\">For <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dhs.gov\/news\/2025\/01\/21\/statement-dhs-spokesperson-directives-expanding-law-enforcement-and-ending-abuse\">years<\/a>, federal immigration enforcement was limited by \u201csensitive location\u201d rules designed to protect places like hospitals, schools, and churches from unnecessary intimidation. Those guidelines were first <a href=\"https:\/\/brownpoliticalreview.org\/from-sunday-mass-to-mass-fear\/#:~:text=freedom%20that%20Obama%20and%20Biden,to%20worship%2C%20so%20perhaps%20Trump\">formalized<\/a> during the Obama administration, kept in place by the first Trump administration, and reaffirmed during the Biden presidency. Nor were these restrictions entirely new: Some form of protection for houses of worship has existed for <a href=\"https:\/\/democracyforward.org\/news\/press-releases\/broad-coalition-urges-court-to-block-immigration-raids-at-houses-of-worship\/\">more than 30 years<\/a>, according to the legal organization Democracy Forward.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"duet--article--article-body-component\">\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _10sa9omi itxwjq1 itxwjq0 pn04iq1\">But DHS <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dhs.gov\/sites\/default\/files\/2025-03\/25_0120_S1_enforcement-actions-in-near-protected-areas.pdf\">rescinded<\/a> the \u201csensitive location\u201d rules at the start of the second Trump presidency \u2014 to \u201cempower\u201d CBP and ICE to go after \u201ccriminals\u201d who \u201cwill no longer be able to hide in America\u2019s schools and churches to avoid arrest,\u201d according to a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dhs.gov\/news\/2025\/01\/21\/statement-dhs-spokesperson-directives-expanding-law-enforcement-and-ending-abuse\">DHS statement at the time<\/a> \u2014 triggering legal responses from immigrant rights and religious freedom groups.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"duet--article--article-body-component\">\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _10sa9omi itxwjq1 itxwjq0 pn04iq1\">\u201cFor decades, the federal government recognized a simple truth: targeting people at houses of worship violates religious freedom and harms communities,\u201d Bradley Girard, the senior counsel at Democracy Forward, said earlier this year when <a href=\"https:\/\/democracyforward.org\/news\/press-releases\/broad-coalition-urges-court-to-block-immigration-raids-at-houses-of-worship\/\">announcing<\/a> friend-of-the-court briefs in federal cases brought by a coalition of Quaker, Sikh, and Baptist groups. \u201cThese briefs make clear that the Trump-Vance administration\u2019s policy is not only unlawful \u2014 it is dangerous. It chills religious exercise and undermines public safety by driving people into the shadows.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"duet--article--article-body-component\">\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _10sa9omi itxwjq1 itxwjq0 pn04iq1\">Many of those suits ended up <a href=\"https:\/\/wordandway.org\/2026\/02\/14\/judge-freezes-ice-raids-at-some-baptist-lutheran-mcc-churches\/\">succeeding<\/a> \u2014 at least in getting judges to protect various Baptist, Lutheran, Christian, and Sikh places of worship that could prove they were being affected by immigration raids. But broader federal protections for places of worship have not yet been formalized.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"duet--article--article-body-component\">\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _10sa9omi itxwjq1 itxwjq0 pn04iq1\">Instead, churches, religious organizations, and legal aid organizations have waged piecemeal legal fights to secure religious liberty protections, like in Minnesota and Illinois \u2014 particularly to exercise pastoral care, like providing counseling, sacraments, and religious rituals. In Minneapolis, for example, Groundwork Legal, a local nonprofit, public interest law firm, sued ICE over a ban on clergy access to the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"duet--article--article-body-component\">\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _10sa9omi itxwjq1 itxwjq0 pn04iq1\">\u201cUnder federal law \u2014 both the Constitution and statute \u2014 it\u2019s clear that the government can only limit the ability of somebody to practice their religious faith, including the ability to provide [or receive] pastoral care, in the least restrictive means possible given the circumstances,\u201d Irina Vaynerman, the co-founder and lead attorney of Groundwork Legal, told me. \u201cAnd here, a categorical bar from even entering the building, to offering that care to anyone who wants to receive, it was obviously not the least restrictive means.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"duet--article--article-body-component\">\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _10sa9omi itxwjq1 itxwjq0 pn04iq1\">Groundwork filed that suit in February on behalf of multi-denominational faith organizations and faith leaders under both the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act and the First Amendment\u2019s free exercise protections. They won a preliminary injunction in March, with a judge ordering the federal government to allow faith leaders to offer pastoral care to those held by ICE at the building.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"duet--article--article-body-component\">\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _10sa9omi itxwjq1 itxwjq0 pn04iq1\">Catholic clergy and religious leaders <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thelettersfromleo.com\/p\/catholic-clergy-sue-trump-vance-white\">launched a similar suit<\/a> last fall in Illinois after ICE and CBP officials denied clergy access to the Broadview federal center to minister to detained people \u2014 including <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/11\/20\/us\/politics\/catholic-broadview-ice-immigration-lawsuit.html\">offering Communion<\/a> to them. They won a <a href=\"https:\/\/news.wttw.com\/2026\/02\/18\/after-court-ruling-clergy-members-given-access-broadview-ice-facility-ash-wednesday\">partial victory<\/a> this year, when a judge ordered federal agents to allow clergy access for Ash Wednesday services \u2014 and in May, ICE and religious leaders <a href=\"https:\/\/news.wttw.com\/2026\/05\/19\/faith-leaders-allowed-daily-access-broadview-ice-facility-under-new-agreement\">reached an agreement<\/a> to allow daily visits once again while litigation plays out.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"duet--article--article-body-component\">\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _10sa9omi itxwjq1 itxwjq0 pn04iq1\">Vaynerman reiterated to me that the Illinois case is still playing out \u2014 these agreements and changes are temporary reprieves, in part because no national protections or guarantees have been formalized beyond piecemeal fights over religious liberty and free exercise in specific cities and around specific federal buildings or places of worship.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"duet--article--article-body-component\">\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _10sa9omi itxwjq1 itxwjq0 pn04iq1\">\u201cCertainly this is something that we know folks are experiencing across the country\u2026and we know that this is happening all over the country because there is not a standard protocol or policies related to this incredibly important constitutional and statutory right,\u201d she said. \u201cIt is so important that the government recognizes [the importance of pastoral care] and then offers that level of access that is constitutionally required to support people going through one of the darkest times in their lives.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On June 28, Sister Leticia \u201cLetty\u201d Ugboaja, a Catholic nun from Nigeria, stepped out of her home to take the short, one-block stroll to her church in McAllen, Texas. It should have been uneventful: dressed in her white habit and bearing a rosary, Sister Letty was walking to Sunday morning mass at Our Lady of&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3148,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/platform.vox.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/07\/gettyimages-2261850700.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C10.727639660594%2C100%2C78.544720678811&w=1200","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3147","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-political-news"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3147","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3147"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3147\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3148"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3147"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3147"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3147"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}