ICE Arrest of Catholic Nun on Her Way to Church Triggers Bipartisan Backlash in Pro-Trump South Texas

Federal agents handcuffed a Catholic nun and confiscated her rosary a single block from her own church, on her way to Sunday Mass.

Sister Leticia 'Letty' Ugboaja, a 56-year-old Nigerian-born nun, was intercepted by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers on 28 June 2026 as she walked to Our Lady of Sorrows Church in McAllen, Texas, dressed in her full religious habit.

She was held for hours and transferred to a detention facility roughly an hour away before Republican and Democratic lawmakers intervened directly with the Department of Homeland Security to secure her release. The arrest of a decade-long fixture of the Rio Grande Valley, one who works as a registered nurse and eucharistic minister, has united a fiercely pro-Trump region in outrage and reopened a raw debate over race and who immigration enforcement is really targeting.

Handcuffed Steps From the Church Door

Ugboaja had made the short walk from her residence to Our Lady of Sorrows countless times before. This time, agents stopped her before she reached the door, seized her rosary and placed her in handcuffs.

She was then driven to an ICE facility in Raymondville, about an hour from the church, according to Sister Norma Pimentel, who oversees the Diocese of Brownsville's charitable arm and spoke with Ugboaja while she was in custody. Pimentel said agents refused to let the nun access medication she needed.

'She was very distraught and scared, and didn't understand what was happening,' Pimentel told the Texas Tribune, describing a woman who has spent a decade caring for patients in South Texas suddenly finding herself the one detained.

Ugboaja did not have identification papers with her at the time of the stop, though she is in the country legally, according to reporting on the case. Bishop Daniel E Flores of the Diocese of Brownsville did not mince words once she was freed. 'Homeland Security enforcement protocols that make it possible for a religious sister, or anyone, to be detained and handcuffed while peacefully walking to church on a Sunday morning are wildly disturbing and need to be reformed,' he said in a statement.

Bipartisan Backlash: 'A Far Cry' From the Administration's Promises

The reaction crossed party lines almost immediately in a district that backed President Trump by a wide margin. Republican Congresswoman Monica De La Cruz said she phoned Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin herself to demand answers.

'As I have repeatedly said, our immigration enforcement should target violent criminals,' De La Cruz wrote on Facebook, arguing the nun's detention had strayed far from that goal.

Her Democratic counterpart, Congressman Vicente Gonzalez, was even sharper. 'They have now led to targeting nuns on their way to Sunday Mass,' he said in a Facebook post, calling the arrest 'a far cry' from the violent offenders the administration has vowed to prioritise. Fellow Democrat Henry Cuellar also worked the phones with DHS before announcing Ugboaja's release himself on X: 'I'm pleased to share that Sister Letty is on her way home.'

Not everyone treated the resolution as a victory. Local Democrat Bobby Pulido, who is challenging De La Cruz for her seat, argued the case should never have required congressional intervention at all. 'She did not have her papers on her but she's in the country legally,' he said. 'This should not be happening. There's a lot of people like Sister Letty that are getting detained needlessly just by how they look or how they talk.'

Why Was She Flagged At All

The political backlash ran alongside a separate, sharper conversation online about race. Social media users and immigrant-rights critics pointed out that Ugboaja is a Black woman from Nigeria, detained in a border region where enforcement has overwhelmingly targeted Latino residents, and asked bluntly why a Nigerian-born nun in full habit was stopped at all.

LULAC, the nation's largest Latino civil rights organisation, took the concern beyond speculation and demanded a formal accounting of the arrest. 'Her release does not erase the fact that she should have never been detained in the first place,' the group said in a statement, calling for safeguards to prevent a repeat.

Critics online folded the case into a wider pattern they say has emerged this year: African-born clergy and Black immigrants facing scrutiny that seems untethered from any criminal record, echoing earlier uproar over the detention of local mariachi performers with no history of wrongdoing. The episode also lands within a broader shift in enforcement, as the administration's immigration crackdown has extended into sensitive sites such as houses of worship, prompting faith leaders nationwide to adjust how they respond to congregants who are now too afraid to attend services.

The Department of Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement have not issued a detailed statement explaining the initial reason for the stop or the specific conditions of Sister Ugboaja's release. However, following the intervention of congressional lawmakers, DHS confirmed that she had been released from custody.