Nun speaks out for first time about being detained by ICE while walking to Mass in Texas
McALLEN, Texas (AP) — A nun taken into immigration detention He said Thursday in Texas last month that he broke out in a cold sweat when two armed men approached him as he walked to Sunday service, thinking about the day’s Bible readings and carrying nothing but a rosary and a cell phone.
“Honestly, at that moment, I didn’t understand what was happening, what was happening to me,” Sister Leticia Ugboaja said. Church of Our Lady of Sorrows He was in McAllen, where he spoke for the first time since U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers arrested him on June 28.
Ugboaja’s lawyer said he had been given protection against deportation to his home country, Nigeria, for years because he was likely to be tortured there.
Ugboaja, 56, was released a few hours after he was detained on his way to church near the US-Mexico border. Posts about him by neighborhood officials on social media brought attention to his case, and members of Congress ultimately intervened on his behalf. President Donald Trump has made mass deportations a central promise of his second administration. immigration pressure unusually leading aggressive tactics They faced scrutiny.
Ugboaja, who had a check-in appointment with ICE on Tuesday, said he wanted to speak out to help others and pleaded for people to have the chance to have their voices heard before they are detained.
“There are many people in the same situation, who have been given some form of protection under our laws, who have followed every rule that has been asked of them, and who are still living with uncertainty,” Ugboaja said. he said.
He said he was grateful to those who helped him, but that “doesn’t mean I can stay silent about what happened to me or what happened to others.”
His attorney, Carlos M. Garcia, sat next to Ugboaja at the press conference and explained details about his immigration case. He said an immigration judge in 2019 rejected his asylum application but protected him from being sent to Nigeria because he would likely be tortured there. Garcia said nurse Ugboaja did everything expected of her and received a permit to work in the United States.
When ICE detained Ugboaja in June, he was given little explanation as to why he was being detained, his lawyer said. But he added that the US plans to send him to a third country.
Trump administration third country removal policy It has been criticized by lawyers and human rights groups and has faced legal challenges. The Department of Homeland Security said the agreements allow people seeking asylum in the United States to seek protection in another country and that the agreements are being used to address a large backlog in immigration courts.
DHS and ICE did not respond to a request for comment on Ugboaja’s case on Thursday and did not respond to requests for comment following his detention in June.
A spokesman for the Diocese of Brownsville said Ugboaja is part of the Daughters of Our Lady of Mercy and volunteers as an Extraordinary Minister of Holy Communion at Our Lady of Sorrows Church. Ugboaja is also a registered nurse with the South Texas Healthcare System and previously worked as a certified nursing assistant in Edinburg for 10 years, the spokeswoman said.
Ugboaja said that on the day he was detained, he begged officers to allow him to attend Mass and receive Communion, but was told he could not do so.
“For me, as a nun, not going to Mass on Sunday, not being able to receive Communion was very, very heartbreaking,” she said.
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Stengle reported from Dallas.
