A California pastor remains defiant weeks after U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents went onto her church’s parking lot to arrest an individual.
The Rev. Tanya Lopez, senior minister at Downey Memorial Church in Downey, a Disciples of Christ congregation, penned a column in USA Today on Tuesday detailing a recent incident with ICE agents on her church’s property.
Last month, armed ICE agents wearing masks came onto the property to apprehend a man who had happened to walk onto the church grounds, Lopez stated.
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“The agents were armed, masked and aggressive,” she wrote. “They tried to intimidate clergy and staff — people whose only armor is their faith and moral convictions. In that moment, our sacred space became a site of state-sanctioned fear and violence.”
Lopez said that while “fear of ICE raids has become so pervasive that even worship cannot feel safe,” she stated that “our faith commands a different path.”
“Yet, in the face of fear, we do not fold. We are people of faith. And faith, in its truest form, is not passive. It does not retreat when challenged. It stands up. It reaches out,” Lopez continued.
“That is why, even now, clergy across California are organizing vigils, demanding action from corporations and elected officials, and showing up in courtrooms and communities to shield those targeted by unjust raids. Because our role is not just to comfort, but to confront injustice.”
The incident at Downey Memorial Church caught the attention of denominational leadership, with Disciples of Christ President the Rev. Terri Hord Owens and Pacific Southwest Region President the Rev. Richie Sanchez issuing a joint statement on June 12.
According to the information provided by Owens and Sanchez, the individual that ICE was arresting was not a member of the church and staff members did not obstruct the operation.
“We ask for civility as the news of this event continues to be shared and ask that people see past the emotions that drive us away from being able to see others as fully human and worthy of dignity,” stated Owens and Sanchez.
“Let’s take the time to listen to one another and try to find shared values and ideas as people that care deeply for our communities and our country.”
Amid immigration raids in the Los Angeles area, witnesses report ICE officers also took people into custody at another Downey church, Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church.
Since taking office earlier this year, President Donald Trump has overseen a sharp increase in immigration enforcement efforts aimed at deporting immigrants who entered the country illegally.
As part of the effort, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security announced the rescinding of a policy enacted by the Obama administration in 2011 that barred immigration law enforcement operations in “sensitive” areas, such as churches and schools.
“Criminals will no longer be able to hide in America’s schools and churches to avoid arrest,” stated DHS at the time. “The Trump Administration will not tie the hands of our brave law enforcement, and instead trusts them to use common sense.”
“The Biden-Harris Administration abused the humanitarian parole program to indiscriminately allow 1.5 million migrants to enter our country. This was all stopped on day one of the Trump Administration. This action will return the humanitarian parole program to its original purpose of looking at migrants on a case-by-case basis.”
The rescinding of the policy has led to multiple lawsuits. One filed in April by a group of churches and other nonprofits accused the administration of violating their First Amendment rights.
Additionally, the Catholic dioceses of San Bernardino and Nashville each recently issued decrees stating that individuals who fear being detained by ICE agents were not obligated to attend mass. The Diocese of Nashville reported a 50% decline in mass attendance on the Sunday after ICE agents arrested nearly 200 people in an early May operation.
The bishops of Nashville, Memphis, and Knoxville issued a statement in early June praising law enforcement’s efforts to deport criminals, drug dealers and human traffickers but questioned the government’s figures. The bishops stressed that “as many as 100 of those detained, while undocumented, apparently had no previous criminal issues.”
“That brings into question whether the enforcement activity was principally targeted at those who should have no place in our communities because of their own illegal activity,” the bishops wrote in the statement released by the Tennessee Catholic Conference.
“The fact that so many people without documentation could quietly live under the radar, often for decades, clearly points to the need for broad reform of the immigration system.”
Also in June, Bishop of San Bernardino Alberto Rojas decried federal agents detaining several people at a San Bernardino parish property after chasing them onto the parking lot.
“While we surely respect and appreciate the right of law enforcement to keep our communities safe from violent criminals, we are now seeing agents detain people as they leave their homes, in their places of work and other randomly chosen public settings,” the Mexican-born bishop stated. “We have experienced at least one case of [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] agents entering a parish property and seizing several people.”
