Sign the petition to demand that ICE stop the deportation proceedings of Sister Leticia Ugboaja!
Dear MoveOn member,
ICE detained a nun on her way to church.
On a Sunday morning in late June, Sister Leticia “Letty” Ugboaja was stopped and detained by ICE agents a block from her home in McAllen, Texas, as she walked to church. Sister Ugboaja, who is from Nigeria and is a part of the Daughters of Mary Mother of Mercy in, has worked as a nurse in south Texas for more than a decade.
“Honestly, in that moment, I did not understand what was going on, what was happening to me,” Ugboaja said in a press conference.1
With the massive increases in funding, ICE has been turbocharged—leading to more and more attacks on our communities, including mothers, nurses, and nuns. Will you sign the petition now to demand the end of deportation proceedings against Sister Ugboaja?
Sister Ugboaja was placed in a detention facility an hour away from the church and ICE withheld necessary medication.2 The arrest sparked immediate outrage and members of Congress to helped secure her release that same day.
Although Sister Ugboaja was released and has a legal work permit, she still faces deportation. If she is forced to return to Nigeria, she will likely be tortured, which is why she was granted a protection from removal order in 2019. Now, the government is seeking to send her to a third country.3
Keep Sister Ugboaja in the United States and stop the harassment and detention of religious leaders.
Sister Ugboaja isn’t the only religious leader detained by ICE. In July, Nepthali Zozaya Saucedo and his wife Cinthia Sarai Cardona Otero were detained by ICE agents as they were flying from Texas to North Carolina for a religious retreat. Both are assistant pastors from south Texas who are in the U.S. on religious visas and in the process of obtaining green cards. They claimed that ICE threatened them with prolonged detainment if they didn’t sign voluntary deportation papers.4
This is all part of ICE’s pattern of attacking and detaining communities of color and either deporting them or pressuring them to self-deport. This reckless lawlessness must not continue.
Tell ICE: Stop deportation proceedings against Sister Leticia Ugboaja!
Thanks for all you do.
–Mary, Katie, Nakia, Ankur, and the rest of the team
Sources:
1. “Nun speaks out for first time about being detained by ICE while walking to Mass in Texas,” Associated Press, July 23, 2026
https://apnews.com/article/nun-arrested-ice-texas-d4937d291570e9b151add91c36020dd4
2.“Catholic bishop seeks information on “wildly disturbing” ICE arrest of nun walking to South Texas church,” Texas Tribune, June 30,2026
https://www.texastribune.org/2026/06/30/texas-mcallen-nun-ice-detention-sister-letty/
3.“Catholic nun avoids detention but still faces deportation,” Border Report, July 28, 2026
https://www.borderreport.com/border-report-tour/immigration/catholic-nun-avoids-detention-but-still-faces-deportation/
4. “Detained pastor couple had religious worker visas, Assemblies of God leaders say,” Religion News Service, July 24, 2026
https://religionnews.com/2026/07/24/pastors-were-detained-by-ice-threatened-with-separation-from-children-assemblies-of-god-leaders-say
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