Sister Leticia Ugboaja was walking to Sunday Mass in her habit, carrying little more than her rosary and cellphone, when two armed ICE officers stopped her.
“I was very much afraid, with cold sweat,” the 56-year-old nun from Nigeria said at a news conference Thursday, speaking publicly for the first time since her June 28 detention. “I did not expect on an ordinary Sunday morning when people should be ready to go to Mass to worship the Lord” that she would be taken into custody.
Ugboaja was on her way to serve as an Extraordinary Minister of Holy Communion at Our Lady of Sorrows Church in McAllen, just a few miles from the U.S.-Mexico border. She had never missed a Sunday Mass before.
“Even when I told them, ‘Can I go to Mass; can I just attend Mass; can I receive communion,’ the answer was ‘No,'” she said. “For me, a nun, not to go to Mass on Sunday, not to receive Communion, it was very, very heartbreaking”.
Released After Lawmakers Intervened
Ugboaja was released several hours after her detention, following intervention from Texas lawmakers including Republican Rep. Monica de la Cruz and Democratic Reps. Henry Cuellar, Vicente Gonzalez, and Joaquin Castro.
Parish officials had posted about her arrest on social media, drawing national attention. Bishop Daniel E. Flores of the Catholic Diocese of Brownsville described her as a “well-known source of goodness and hope” in the community.
Richard Cortez, the Democratic judge of Hidalgo County and a parishioner at Our Lady of Sorrows, said lawmakers sent “frenzied phone calls and text messages” to Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin and border czar Tom Homan demanding her release. Sister Norma Pimentel, a well-known figure in the region, drove to the El Valle Detention Center to embrace a tearful Ugboaja as she exited.
Legal Protection but Uncertain Future
Ugboaja’s attorney, Carlos M. Garcia, said that in 2019 an immigration judge denied her asylum application but granted her protection from removal to Nigeria under the United Nations Convention Against Torture, concluding that “it was more likely than not that she would face torture if returned there”.
Because her asylum claim was denied, Ugboaja remains under a final order of removal, though she has complied with all conditions since 2019, including holding a valid work permit and attending every mandatory immigration appointment. She has worked as a registered nurse in South Texas for more than a decade and previously spent 10 years as a certified nursing assistant.
When ICE detained Ugboaja in June, she was given little explanation but learned the U.S. planned to remove her to a third country. The Trump administration’s third-country removal policy has been criticized by lawyers and human rights groups and has faced legal challenges.
Bipartisan Backlash
Ugboaja’s arrest sparked bipartisan criticism in South Texas, a region that supported Trump in 2024. Rep. Monica De La Cruz, who flipped her border district in 2022, wrote: “A Catholic nun on her way to church is not a threat to our community”.
Rep. Henry Cuellar said the arrest reflects an overreach that is turning Hispanic voters away from Republicans.
“They started going after people on the streets and that part – the overreach by ICE – is turning Hispanics back to other candidates, to Democrats honestly”.
What’s Next
Ugboaja faces a check-in appointment with ICE on July 28. Her attorney said officials could decide to detain her again or place an electronic monitor on her.
“We are asking that she not be detained and that no ankle monitor be placed on a person who has broken no rule, posed no danger, and given this country a decade of nursing and a lifetime of ministry,” Garcia said.
The Bottom Line
Sister Leticia Ugboaja, a 56-year-old nun from Nigeria, was detained by ICE while walking to Mass in McAllen, Texas, on June 28. She was released hours later after lawmakers intervened, but now faces an uncertain future. Despite having protection from deportation to Nigeria under the UN Convention Against Torture, the U.S. planned to remove her to a third country. Her detention sparked bipartisan backlash and raised questions about ICE’s enforcement tactics.
