Protests erupt across the US after two ICE shootings
Protesters from Houston to Boston, Portland, Maine and Los Angeles have spoken out against fear and injustice in the wake of two recent ICE shootings.
A Catholic nun who was detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents as she walked to Mass in South Texas said she continues to live in fear and anxiety weeks after her arrest, drawing national attention and bipartisan calls for her release.
Leticia “Leti” Ugboaja, a 56-year-old nun from Nigeria, spoke publicly for the first time since she was detained by ICE agents on June 28 in McAllen, a city just north of the U.S.-Mexico border. At a press conference on July 23, Ugboaja said he was stopped by two armed federal agents as he walked to Our Lady of Sorrows Church for Sunday Mass, where he was scheduled to serve as a Eucharistic minister.
“I was sweating cold and very scared,” Ugboaja said at a press conference. “I did not expect her to be detained on a normal Sunday morning when people would be ready to go to Mass to worship the Lord.”
Ugboaja was released later the same day after intervention by members of Texas’s congressional delegation and a public outcry over the arrest of nuns wearing religious garb while heading to church services. The incident drew criticism from both Democrats and Republicans, who questioned why she was detained.
Ugboaja said many other migrants face similar situations without her case receiving public attention. She called on immigration authorities to give people a chance to be heard before they are detained.
“There are many others who are in the same situation, who have some form of protection under our laws, who have followed all the rules required of them, and who are still living in fear,” Ugboaja said.
USA TODAY has reached out to the Department of Homeland Security and ICE for comment.
Lawyer says nun remains protected from deportation to Nigeria
Ugboaja’s lawyer, Carlos M. Garcia, said an immigration judge denied Ugboaja’s asylum claim in 2019 but granted her protection from deportation to Nigeria, concluding that “she met the high legal standard required to show that she would be likely to be subjected to torture if returned to Nigeria.”
Garcia said the protection prevents the U.S. government from deporting her to Nigeria, but she remains under a final deportation order because her asylum request was denied. Garcia said Ugboaja has complied with all conditions of immigration status since his sentencing, including maintaining an employment permit and attending required immigration appointments.
“She did everything required by law,” he said at a news conference.
Ugboaja is scheduled to turn himself in to ICE on July 28, and Garcia asked federal authorities not to detain him again or require him to be placed on an electronic monitoring device.
When Ugboaja was detained last month, Garcia said he was given little explanation as to why he was being detained. He noted that ICE is attempting to deport her to a third country.
USA TODAY previously reported that the Trump administration last year dramatically expanded a little-known tactic of sending migrants to countries with which they have no ties. Critics say it outsources detention to foreign governments, many with records of human rights abuses, minimal oversight and unclear legal protections.
Deportees are being held in hotels, shelters and prisons in more than 20 countries under a deal brokered by the United States during President Donald Trump’s second term.
Nun’s detention sparked public outrage.
Ugboaja’s detention quickly gained national attention after church leaders, immigrant rights advocates, and Texas state lawmakers rallied behind her. Bishop Daniel E. Flores of the Catholic Diocese of Brownsville described her as a “well-known source of goodness and hope” in the community.
The diocese said Ugboaja is a member of the Nigeria-based congregation of the Daughters of Mary, Mother of Mercy. She volunteers as an interim minister of communion at Our Lady of Sorrows Church and is a registered nurse at the South Texas Health System’s McAllen Medical Center.
Before volunteering at the church, Ugboaja worked for 10 years as a certified nursing assistant at DHR Health in Edinburg, Texas, the diocese said in a statement after he was taken into custody.
As news of Ugboaja’s detention spread, Republican Rep. Monica de la Cruz and Democratic Reps. Henry Cuellar, Vicente Gonzalez and Joaquín Castro criticized the incident and urged federal authorities to release her.
The League of Latin American Citizens (LULAC), the nation’s oldest and largest Latino civil rights organization, also launched a petition calling for an immediate investigation into Ugboaja’s detention.
Dela Cruz, Cuellar, Gonzalez and Castro have intervened in other immigration cases that have sparked public outrage. Mr. Castro and Mr. Dela Cruz announced in March that two teenage brothers and their parents, who were part of an award-winning mariachi band, had been released from ICE custody.
Contributed by Eduardo Cuevas and Jennifer Borresen, USA TODAY
