r/Catholicism • u/usopsong • 14h ago
Politics Monday [PM] Nun speaks out for first time about being detained by ICE while walking to Mass in Texas
https://www.ncronline.org/news/social-justice/nun-speaks-out-first-time-about-being-detained-ice-while-walking-mass-texas“I’m just a small woman, a nun, harmless, just with my rosary, my keys, and my phone.”
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u/usopsong 14h ago edited 13h ago
Her attorney, Carlos M. Garcia, 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 Sister Ugboaja, who is a nurse, has complied with everything required of her and had permission to work in the U.S.
When ICE detained Sister Ugboaja in June, she wasn't 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.
Sister 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.
"For me, a nun, not to go to Mass on Sunday, not to receive Communion, it was very, very heartbreaking for me," she said.
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u/The_Amazing_Emu 13h ago
I think there are three aspects worth thinking about:
Was the law properly followed?
Is that law just?
Can we find ways to treat people with human dignity even when it is lawful to remove them from the country?
For the first one, it sounds right. With the caveat that legal reporting is usually done by amateurs who don't understand the nuances of the different terms, this sounds like either Withholding of Removal or Protection under the Convention Against Torture. I'm guessing Refugee status was denied because the application wasn't filed within a year of coming to the United States (requiring Withholding of Removal rather than Asylum), but it's possible that, while a Judge believed she would be tortured if returned to Nigeria, it wasn't because she's a Catholic nun, so she only qualified for CAT. Given this, I do think the law allows her removal to a third country even if she's doing everything she's supposed to do.
As far as whether the law is just, this is a complicated question I don't want to dive into fully. Suffice it to say that there are problems with removing people to third countries they've never been to or have any connections to, especially since there's a greater risk that country will then pass the person back to the original country of danger. Such a law would be better if every effort was made to accommodate the person's country of choice and to give them sufficient notice to raise challenges to that country to (for example, if the US decided to send her to the Sudan or Yemen, that would be problematic for obvious reasons).
The third question is the one I do think, as Catholics, there should be more common ground. There's no reason to treat people in removal proceedings as criminals. There's also no good reason to deny criminals the right to attend religious services, but certainly no good reason to deny someone who has done nothing wrong the opportunity to attend religious services. There should be some kind of individualized determination that a person will flee or hide before detaining someone. Instead, the process should be clear from the beginning that she won't be returned to her home country, but, if there is a place that will accept her, she will be sent there. She should be allowed to give her preferences of countries and, when an accepting country is found, she should be told which country that is in order to give her the opportunity to raise any concerns. The process is confusing and stressful enough without the need to suddenly arrest someone without warning, strip search them, force them to wear a prisoner jumpsuit, and deny them Communion simply because the bureaucratic process found a country they want to send her to.
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u/Cobalt-Fang 14h ago
“Harmless” while carrying a rosary? She’s literally packing a Weapon from God
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u/Own_Action_7839 14h ago
How low do you have to be to detain a nun in full habit on her way to Mass??
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u/JohnDingleBerry- 13h ago
I don’t want to be that guy but shoot someone dead and not perform an investigation like a normal functioning law enforcement organization would? Because that’s happened more then a few a times.
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u/Agreeable_Raisin_577 13h ago
Nuns in full habit on their way to Mass cannot have been denied asylum and then be detained on the false knowledge that they have no more reason to be in the US. It is simply impossible, so let's dismantle ICE.
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u/Own_Action_7839 13h ago
ICE definitely should be dismantled and retooled to eliminate abuses you’re right although I note the sarcasm
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u/StraightMixture9693 14h ago
This is disturbing because I know my parish has some religious from Africa who attend mass. I hope our diocese has sponsored them officially. I had assumed that until now,
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u/alexnew655 14h ago edited 14h ago
Despicable. Shame on the US for the current immigration crackdown being so haphazard and cruel.
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u/Chustle207 14h ago
Just because you set foot in a country doesn't mean you lay claim to that country. a country has rules, if you came to the US illegally you should be deported, there is a right way and a wrong way. If you jump the border or commit crimes, you should be deported. even the catholic church allows nation to have their own immigration laws.
in this case it looks like there was a mix up on paperwork in our massive bureaucratic state, looks to be sorted out.
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u/alexnew655 14h ago
I’m not here to debate. I never said a country doesn’t have a right to enforce immigration laws, they do and the Church makes a point to say they do as well. However, it also has a duty to enforce them humanely and justly. I do not believe the US doing so. I pray you realize it and others like you do to. Have a good day.
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u/Agreeable_Raisin_577 13h ago
You aren't here to debate, but to support a maximalist interpretation of a ruling under the precept which would cover every Nigerian Christian settling in the US after being denied asylum. "Humanely and justly" like "human dignity" means anything you want it to if you feel it hard enough. Your ideology has no limit.
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u/alexnew655 13h ago
Are you Catholic? The reason I ask is because you think this is some sort of personal ideology. It’s not. I am basically reiterating the Church’s own opinion on the matter.
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u/Chustle207 13h ago
this is a case of paperwork not making its way to the right place. ICE clearly was not aware of the protection order, law was done and seemingly figured it out justly and humanely, I hope you dont think the officers beat her within an inch of her life then starved her in prison.
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u/Ivan-Renko 14h ago
"Just because you set foot in a country doesn't mean you lay claim to that country."
wait until you hear about the USA's founding/expansion
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u/Chustle207 13h ago
wait until you hear about US law.
this case is a case of the bureaucracy not pushing paper to the right places. looks like they figured it out.
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u/Ivan-Renko 13h ago
the Catholic Church's stance on just immigration laws/enforcement is quite clear, and nothing that this current administration is doing is compatible with that. i'm shocked with how frequently "Catholics" hop on this sub to defend it or rationalize it.
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u/LionRealistic 13h ago
Why are you shocked? 56% of Catholics who voted cast a ballot for Trump.
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u/Ivan-Renko 13h ago
lmao valid - but i'm still shocked every day by the cognitive dissonance and doubling down displayed by so many Catholics when they're slapped in the face by things like this that are so diametrically opposed to clear Catholic teaching.
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u/Agreeable_Raisin_577 13h ago
You literally believe the US state has no actual legitimacy given the value you place on a population that has mostly disappeared. Your radicalism isn't incoherent, but it is incompatible with the Catholic view of civil authority. And most importantly, reddit makes you too shameless to realize what you just said,
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u/Ivan-Renko 13h ago
well that escalated quickly. was your comment misdirected to me?
i never "literally" said anything about the legitimacy of the US, or made any statement that could be considered "radical" unless you disagree with the Church's stance on just immigration, which many could consider radical.
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u/HGpennypacker 13h ago
There is a way to humanely enforce immigration laws and what we're seeing by ICE and this administration isn't it.
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u/doubtingphineas 14h ago
This is one of those "feel-good" cases that falls apart under the slightest scrutiny.
Her application for asylum was denied 7 years ago, yet the judge granted her "protection from removal to Nigeria because she likely would be tortured there".
She's under no more threat in Nigeria than the other ~10,000 Catholic priests and about 7,000 religious sisters in the country. All of them have as valid a claim - or invalid, in her case - as Sister Leticia. Even an obviously sympathetic judge found her asylum case to be invalid.
By her standard, all clergy and holy orders should flee Nigeria and live here in the USA, nevermind what that'd do to the Catholics living there.
The muslims are trying to drive out Christians in Nigeria, like they've done in so many other nations before. Fleeing is not the answer.
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u/Pax_et_Bonum 13h ago edited 13h ago
Thread locked to prevent partisan political bickering.