MCALLEN, Texas — In her first public remarks since U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement took her into custody last month near the U.S.-Mexico border, 56-year-old Nigerian nun Sister Leticia Ugboaja recounted the jarring moment two armed officers approached her as she walked to Sunday Mass, an experience that left her shaken and confused.
Wearing her traditional habit, carrying only a rosary and cellphone, and mentally preparing for the day’s Bible readings, Ugboaja broke out in a cold sweat when the officers intercepted her. “Honestly, in that moment, I did not understand what was going on, what was happening to me,” she told reporters at a news conference held at McAllen’s Our Lady of Sorrows Church, the parish where she serves as a volunteer Extraordinary Minister of Holy Communion.
Ugboaja, a registered nurse with decades of experience working in South Texas healthcare, has held formal protection from deportation to her native Nigeria since 2019, when an immigration judge ruled she would face a substantial risk of torture if forced to return. Her attorney, Carlos M. Garcia, confirmed that Ugboaja has complied with every regulatory requirement imposed on her since that ruling, including maintaining regular check-ins and securing legal permission to work in the country.
She was held in ICE custody for several hours before being released, following a rapid outpouring of public attention after parish leaders shared her case on social media. Multiple members of Congress ultimately intervened to secure her release. The incident comes amid a sharp escalation of immigration enforcement under the second Trump administration, where mass deportation was a core campaign promise. Critics have slammed the administration’s unusually aggressive enforcement tactics, which have drawn growing scrutiny from civil liberties and human rights advocates.
Ugboaja begged officers to let her attend Mass and receive Holy Communion before taking her into custody, a request that was denied. “For me, a nun, not to go to Mass on Sunday, not to receive Communion, it was very, very heartbreaking for me,” she said.
Garcia added that when Ugboaja was detained, ICE offered no clear explanation for the arrest, beyond that officials planned to transfer her to a third country under the Trump administration’s controversial third-country removal policy. That policy, which requires some asylum seekers and protected immigrants to pursue protection in a third nation rather than the U.S., has faced widespread criticism from legal organizations and human rights groups, as well as ongoing legal challenges. Administration officials have defended the policy, arguing it helps reduce crippling backlogs in the nation’s overcrowded immigration court system.
Ugboaja is scheduled to attend a required check-in with ICE on Tuesday. She chose to speak out now not just to share her own experience, but to advocate for the hundreds of thousands of other immigrants who hold legal protection but still live in constant fear of arbitrary detention.
“There 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,” Ugboaja said. While she expressed deep gratitude to the parish leaders, lawmakers and supporters who helped secure her release, she added that gratitude does not justify staying silent about systemic flaws in the current enforcement regime. “That does not mean I can stay quiet about what happened to me, or about what is still happening to others,” she said.
A spokesperson for the Diocese of Brownsville confirmed Ugboaja is a member of the Daughters of Mary Mother of Mercy religious order, and has worked for 10 years as a certified nursing assistant in Edinburg before taking her current role as a registered nurse at South Texas Health System.
As of Thursday, neither the Department of Homeland Security nor ICE had responded to repeated requests for comment on Ugboaja’s case, including requests submitted shortly after her June 28 arrest.