{"id":4182,"date":"2026-07-25T10:39:56","date_gmt":"2026-07-25T10:39:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\/?p=4182"},"modified":"2026-07-25T10:39:56","modified_gmt":"2026-07-25T10:39:56","slug":"nun-detained-by-ice-on-her-way-to-mass-speaks-out-for-first-time-for-me-a-nun-not-to-go-to-massit-was-very-very-heartbreaking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\/?p=4182","title":{"rendered":"Nun detained by ICE on her way to Mass speaks out for first time: \u2018For me, a nun, not to go to Mass\u2026it was very, very heartbreaking\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p>\u201cHonestly, in that moment, I did not understand what was going on, what was happening to me,\u201d Sister Leticia Ugboaja said at a news conference at\u00a0Our Lady of Sorrows Church\u00a0in McAllen, where she spoke out for the first time since U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers arrested her on June 28.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\/?p=4180\">Defense tech investors thought the war in Iran could make them millionaires. Instead, they faced a Wall Street bloodbath<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Ugboaja\u2019s attorney says she has for years been granted protection from removal to her native Nigeria because she was likely to face torture there.<\/p>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Ugboaja, 56, was released several hours after being detained while on her way to church near the U.S.-Mexico border. Parish officials\u2019 posting about her on social media brought attention to her case, and Congress members ultimately intervened on her behalf. President Donald Trump made mass deportations a central promise of his second administration, with his\u00a0immigration crackdown\u00a0leading to unusually\u00a0aggressive tactics\u00a0that have faced scrutiny.<\/p>\n<p>Ugboaja, who has a check-in appointment with ICE on Tuesday, said she wanted to speak out to help others, and pleaded for people to have the chance to be heard before being taken into custody.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere are many others in this same situation, people who have been given some form of protection under our laws, who have followed every rule asked of them, and who still live with uncertainty,\u201d Ugboaja said.<\/p>\n<p>While she\u2019s grateful to those who helped her, she said, that \u201cdoes not mean I can stay quiet about what happened to me, or about what is still happening to others.\u201d<\/p>\n<div>\n<div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Her attorney, Carlos M. Garcia, sat next to Ugboaja at the news conference and provided details about her immigration case. He said that in 2019 an immigration judge denied her application for asylum but granted her protection from removal to Nigeria because she likely would be tortured there. Garcia said Ugboaja, who is a nurse, has complied with everything required of her and had permission to work in the U.S.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\/?p=4178\">An 11-year-old is cleaning his neighbors\u2019 trash cans for $10 each\u2014he now has 100K followers as teens face the worst summer job market since 1948<\/a><\/p>\n<p>When ICE detained Ugboaja in June, she wasn\u2019t given much explanation as to why she was taken into custody, her attorney said. But the U.S. planned to remove her to a third country, he added.<\/p>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>The Trump administration\u2019s\u00a0third-country removal policy\u00a0has been criticized by lawyers and human rights groups and has faced legal challenges. The Department of Homeland Security has said the agreements allow people seeking asylum in the U.S. to pursue protection in the other country, and that the agreements are used to try to address large backlogs in immigration courts.<\/p>\n<div>\n<div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>DHS and ICE did not respond to a request to comment on Ugboaja\u2019s case on Thursday and did not respond to requests for comment after her detention in June.<\/p>\n<div>\n<div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Ugboaja is part of the Daughters of Mary Mother of Mercy and volunteered as an Extraordinary Minister of Holy Communion at Our Lady of Sorrows Church, a spokesperson for the Diocese of Brownsville has said. Ugboaja is also a registered nurse at South Texas Health System and worked previously for 10 years as a certified nursing assistant in Edinburg, the spokesperson said.<\/p>\n<p>Ugboaja said that on the day she was taken into custody, she begged the officers to let her attend Mass and receive Holy Communion, but was told she could not.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFor me, a nun, not to go to Mass on Sunday, not to receive Communion, it was very, very heartbreaking for me,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\/?p=4176\">EU strikes Google with $1 billion fine in major crackdown on antitrust regulations even as Trump threatens retaliation<\/a><\/p>\n<p>___<\/p>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Stengle reported from Dallas.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Officers gave little explanation for detaining Sister Leticia Ugboaja despite her years of compliance with immigration requirements<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4181,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[84],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4182","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-immigration"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.7 - 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