Sister Leticia Ugboaja, the Catholic nun and nurse who was briefly detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents in south Texas in June, made her first public remarks after what she described as weeks of “stress, anxiety, and fear.”
At a July 23 press conference, she said she is still afraid of what may yet happen to her but is trusting in God.
“I was very much afraid, with cold sweat,” she said of her detainment by ICE officers as she walked to Mass at Our Lady of Sorrows Church in McAllen, Texas, on June 28. “I did not expect [it]; on an ordinary Sunday morning, when people should be ready to go to Mass to worship the Lord, on the street here, just in front of the school, where I have walked … a countless number of times.”
“I will not pretend it did not hurt and it’s hurting me today,” she said, describing the two ICE agents as “armed, and Iʼm just a small woman, a nun, armless, with just my rosary, my key, and my phone.”
Though she felt afraid and hurt, she said she has been trusting in God, quoting Jesus’ admonition to “not be afraid, because I am with you always.”
Ugboaja, a member of the Daughters of Mary Mother of Mercy and a registered nurse at South Texas Health System, said it was “heartbreaking” to be told “no” by the ICE agents after she asked them if she could first attend Sunday Mass and receive Communion because “as we know, Sunday Mass is obligatory … it is mandatory.”
During the press conference, Carlos Garcia, her lawyer, gave more information about her immigration status.
He said an immigration judge denied her application for asylum in 2019 but did grant her protection from removal to Nigeria under the United Nations Convention Against Torture, saying it was likely she would be tortured if she returned there.
Garcia said this protection legally bars the U.S. government from deporting her to Nigeria, though “as a technical matter,” she remains under a final order of removal.
Nevertheless, he said the religious sister and nurse, who has served in south Texas for more than a decade, is legally authorized to work in the U.S. and “has never missed an immigration appointment.”
Garcia said Ugboaja’s detainment by immigration officials is confusing: “People who’ve been granted this type of relief have generally for many years been under the impression they are OK as long as they complied … So it’s very confusing not only for her but for many others I’ve talked to as to what is going on.”
Of the way immigration enforcement actions are taking place, Garcia said “it’s hard to comprehend, because of the way it’s happening, without [people] being informed of any reasoning” by the government.
Not an isolated case
“I am not the only one,” Ugboaja said of others who are “languishing’ in the same situation in which she finds herself but who do not have the attention of the media on them.
They are “people who have been given some form of protection under our laws, who have followed every rule asked of them … who still live with uncertainty about where they might be sent and whether anyone will tell them before it happens.”
She said she is praying for them and is asking for something simple: “Before anyone is taken into custody, give them … the opportunity to be heard.”
Garcia said she has a check-in appointment with immigration officials on July 28, where Ugboaja could be detained or an ankle monitor could be placed on her.
The attorney said he hopes the appointment will be unnecessary, but if it does take place, “we are asking that she not be detained and that no ankle monitor be placed … she’s broken no rule, posed no danger, and given the country a decade of nursing and a lifetime of ministry.”
He said ICE detained her on June 28 in order to remove the nun to a third country, a practice that he said is “currently the subject of active litigation in federal courts nationwide.”
He suggested she is entitled to “notice and a meaningful opportunity to contest a proposed third country removal before she’s taken into custody and removed.”
The incident occurred amid heightened immigration enforcement under the Trump administration, which has included operations near houses of worship.
The nun’s release June 28 was facilitated by lawmakers, including U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar, who said his office communicated with Department of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin and border czar Tom Homan to secure Ugboaja’s immediate release.
By Sunday evening, Ugboaja, who serves as an extraordinary minister of holy Communion at Our Lady of Sorrows, had been released from custody and returned home.
Cuellar told EWTN News at the time that “this is not the way they should have picked her up. If ICE had any questions, there would have been more appropriate ways to deal with her situation.”
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