By Sister Norma Pimentel said Sister Leticia Ugboajaʼs detention left lasting emotional scars and deepened fear among immigrant Catholics, renewing calls for meaningful immigration reform.
The brief detention by immigration officials of a Catholic religious sister in south Texas continues to reverberate through immigrant Catholic communities, with Sister Norma Pimentel saying the experience left lasting emotional scars and heightened fears about immigration enforcement.
Speaking in an interview with “EWTN News In Depth” host Catherine Hadro on July 31, Pimentel — a Missionary of Jesus and the executive director of Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley who has served as a long-time migrant advocate — recounted her reaction after learning that Sister Leticia “Letty” Ugboaja had been detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials while walking to church in June.
Ugboaja, a Nigerian-born member of the Daughters of Mary Mother of Mercy and a nurse, has served in the Diocese of Brownsville for nearly two decades. She has ministered in Catholic schools, parishes, and hospitals throughout south Texas and has become well known for her work with immigrant and low-income families.
In 2019, a judge denied Ugboaja’s asylum application but did grant her protection from removal to Nigeria under the United Nations Convention Against Torture because she is likely to face torture in her native country.
She is still at risk of third-country removal, however. Her attorney, Carlos Garcia, says she is legally permitted to work in the U.S. and has complied with every immigration requirement.
“My most immediate concern was that she needed somebody by her side,” Pimentel recalled in the interview with “EWTN News in Depth.”
She said she learned from a priest that Ugboaja was “very frightened,” crying after being taken into custody. Pimentel immediately contacted an ICE official she knew to determine what had happened and whether she could accompany the nun during the process.
“Knowing her, sheʼs such a beautiful person,” Pimentel said. “She was walking to church, and the last thing in her mind was that somebody was just going to take her and change her life this way.”
Although Ugboaja has resumed serving her community, including attending daily Mass, Pimentel said the experience continues to affect her.
“I think sheʼs a strong woman that is trying her best to put this behind her,” she said. “But I noticed that even the day of the press conference, she became overwhelmed with fear.”
Concerns over access to the sacraments
During the interview, Hadro replayed remarks Ugboaja made at a recent press conference where the religious sister described being prevented from attending Sunday Mass or receiving Holy Communion while in detention.
“It was very, very heartbreaking for me,” Letty said. “Can I go to Mass? Can I just attend Mass? Can I receive Communion? And the answer was no.”
Asked whether immigration enforcement has affected Catholics’ ability to practice their faith, Pimentel said priests throughout the Diocese of Brownsville have reported growing anxiety among immigrant families.
“What I hear from local priests that call me … is, ‘Norma, please help me. One of our families, one of their mothers … theyʼre all frightened,’” Pimentel said in the interview.
While Pimentel said she is not aware of people being detained while attending Mass, she said many families have become fearful after seeing immigration officials in their communities, including near schools.
“Itʼs so sad to hear that, the fact that people are afraid to go to church,” she said.
A call for legal pathways
Hadro also asked Pimentel how Catholics should balance respect for the rule of law with the Churchʼs teaching on the dignity of every human person.
Pimentel said border security and human dignity “go hand in hand,” arguing that nations have the right to maintain an orderly immigration system while also providing legal avenues for migrants who qualify to remain in the country.
“We must be able to distinguish the difference,” she said, calling for “safe legal procedures” that allow immigrants who contribute to their communities to pursue legal status.
Pimentel expressed hope that legal pathways for asylum seekers who do not pose a threat to public safety would continue to be available.
“I think those legal pathways need to be established,” she said, “for certain individuals that present themselves as something that contributes good to our country.”
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Please remind me again how this current administration is concerned with religious liberty?
>Mark Houck has entered the chat.
Yeah. A white American man got millions of dollars for wrongful detention and emotional trauma. A black legal immigrant nun will get bupkiss and people will call him righteous and her “hysterical”. Jesus weeps.
I think a great deal more concerned with religious freedom than the previous administration was. But that admittedly was a low bar.
Not compelling Catholics to participate in abortion practices is an obvious start, unless you believe Catholics should support abortion like your comrades in revolution.
How about opposing mandates compelling medical personel to support or participate in abortion practices, however much this might offend your own leftist sympathies.
Sister Norma is yet another hysterical sister. Let’s remember that she has no rights under US law as a non-citizen. Let’s also remember that Catholic Charities bears some of the responsibility of the invasion of our country by illegals. Let’s remember that this is once again highjacking the Catholic Church to advance political objectives.
ETWN writers are stenographers.
Norma Pimental is a fraud and and ethno-nepotist.
Other news outlets say that ICE detained this religious sister for a FEW HOURS. So what’s the big deal with tears, emotional breakdown, and “news”? I was stopped for a traffic violation, and my husband was once held for a few hours by local police. A brother was subject to police interrogation because a friend of his showed up dead. This detention of an immigrant nun is not NEWS; her emotional instability proves only that snowflakes exist.
The Spanish city of Ceuta “welcomed” some 50 to 60K migrants (all males of “fighting age”) from neighboring Moracco. I have not seen much news of that on Catholic Websites.
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Constantinople was once a Catholic city, and I always assume it was conquered by Islam. Now I wonder if it was just migrants who were welcomed in
MrsHess: and you’ll see nothing about the invasion of Spain by hordes of islamic types because the prime minister of spain is a socialist.
“Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.”
Not so when you involve the illegal and out of control of criminal ICE murders of innocent immigrants. ICE has the largest funding of the entire government.
Following the passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act in 2025, ICE became the largest and most well-funded U.S. federal law enforcement agency. Its enforcement actions, publicity campaigns, and tactics have generated public controversy and raised concerns over legality, accountability, and civil rights.
ICE may have a charter, but they don’t follow it.
You wouldn’t be imagining any “ICE murders” if there was no invasion of the USA by illegal aliens who come here to rob, murder, rape, vote illegally in our elections, collect Medicaid, defraud the taxpayers of billions by setting up fraudulent “child care agencies”, etc etc.
Dear Dioge. I know you are tending to your needs, but really, ICE has its flaws. ICE is the largest and most well-funded U.S. federal law enforcement agency. Its enforcement actions were a concern for a massive number of protestors. Some valid, some not.
The slogan “arrest the worst of the worst” was a valid charge. Did that slogan produce success? Depends.
Since 2023, ICE has arrested 75000 criminals and illegals. Government data shows 16,523 people with no record, versus 15,725 with a record and 13,767 with pending charges.
One simple question is whether the number that requires incarceration in 222 detention prisons is really efficient, with many owned by private for-profit individuals? ICE says they need more.
Fini: Trump says he stopped illegals from crossing the southern border. If that is true, and given his prolific lying, I would not rely on his word.
Godspeed.
If Sister Letty has been here working in medical facilities for almost two decades, I wonder why she doesn’t have one of the visas for religious workers by now. She would have to be aponsored but it seems like her religious order or tbe Diocese of Brownsville, or maybe even Sister Norma Pimentel’s group (given that Sr. Pimentel has been speaking to the press on her behalf)could have sponsored her. A grant of asylum seems more tenuous for a member of a religioud order. Perhaps we will eventually more information about her.
Why are we automatcally assuming innocence and victimhood here? Is she here legally, and does she have the documentation to prove it?