A Catholic religious sister was detained by federal immigration enforcement agents in McAllen, Texas on Sunday morning, June 28, while walking to her parish church — an incident that drew swift congressional intervention and a statement of concern from her diocese.

Sister Leticia Ugboaja, a member of the Daughters of Mary Mother of Mercy, a congregation founded in Nigeria, was stopped by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents near her residence as she made her way on foot to Our Lady of Sorrows Church. She was wearing her religious habit at the time of the arrest. After several hours in custody, she was released the same day following outreach from elected officials.

A Life of Service in South Texas

Sister Ugboaja’s ties to the Rio Grande Valley run deep. She works as a registered nurse at a McAllen medical center affiliated with the South Texas Health System, and prior to that role she spent a decade as a certified nursing assistant at DHR Health in Edinburg, Texas. At Our Lady of Sorrows, she also serves as an extraordinary minister of holy Communion — a lay liturgical role — making her both a recognized healthcare worker and an active member of her parish community.

News of her detention spread quickly, prompting a response from Rep. Monica De La Cruz, the Republican congresswoman representing Texas’s 15th District, which includes McAllen. De La Cruz said she personally spoke with Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin to press for Sister Ugboaja’s release. “A Catholic nun on her way to church is not a threat to our community,” De La Cruz said publicly.

Sister Ugboaja was freed from ICE custody later that same Sunday. The specific legal or administrative basis for her detention had not been made fully public as of the diocese’s statement the following day.

Diocese of Brownsville Responds

On June 29, the Diocese of Brownsville — which encompasses the McAllen area — issued a formal statement expressing gratitude for the public support and for the speed with which the matter was resolved. Bishop Daniel E. Flores, the diocese’s ordinary, made clear that the situation was not fully explained by the resolution itself. “There are many questions remaining about the circumstances surrounding Sister Letty’s arrest and detention,” Bishop Flores said.

The bishop’s measured but pointed words reflected the pastoral weight of the incident. For a woman in religious habit, en route to Sunday Eucharist, to be detained by federal agents raises questions not only about the mechanics of enforcement but about the human cost of immigration policy as it is applied on the ground in border communities.

A Broader Moment of Reckoning

The detention of Sister Ugboaja takes place within a broader national context of intensified immigration enforcement along the southern border. Catholic social teaching holds that the dignity of every person — regardless of legal status — is inviolable, rooted in the imago Dei. At the same time, the Church acknowledges the right of sovereign nations to regulate their borders in an orderly way. The tension between those principles has never been more visible than in communities like McAllen, where the Church is often the primary institution caring for those caught between legal categories and lived lives.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches that political authorities have both the right to enforce immigration law and an obligation to ensure that enforcement respects the human dignity of each person. When a woman who has spent a decade-and-a-half serving the sick and the poor is arrested on her way to distribute holy Communion, it invites serious public discernment about whether enforcement practices are achieving that balance — a question Bishop Flores appears to be raising directly.

Pope Leo XIV, who has placed Catholic social teaching at the center of his pontificate, has called the Church to apply those principles concretely in the lives of real people, not merely in the abstract. The case of Sister Ugboaja is precisely the kind of moment where doctrine meets the street corner.

The Diocese of Brownsville did not indicate as of its June 29 statement whether it was seeking further accountability from federal immigration authorities or pursuing any formal legal remedy on Sister Ugboaja’s behalf.

Category: Public Life