ICE targets men near Inland Empire church grounds

ICE arrests near two churches in San Bernardino County last month show how ramped up immigration enforcement is disturbing places that were once deemed protected.

On June 20 federal agents picked up a longtime parishioner of Our Lady of Lourdes Church in Montclair on church property, according to the National Catholic Reporter. In a separate incident that day, agents chased several men onto the church parking lot of St. Adelaide parish in Highland.

Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security Tricia McLaughlin disputed what she said were news reports that agents had entered the church hall.

“The accusation that ICE entered a church to make an arrest are FALSE,” she stated in an email to CalMatters. “ICE conducted a traffic stop on an illegal alien on June 20 in the general proximity of Our Lady of Lourdes Church, Montclair, California. The illegal alien chose to pull into the church parking lot. Officers then safely made the arrest.”

For almost a decade and a half, U.S. immigration officers steered clear of churches, complying with a directive by former President Barack Obama that limited immigration enforcement at sensitive locations, including schools, hospitals and places of worship. Former President Joe Biden maintained those guidelines to deter immigration action in areas that provide essential services.

On his inauguration day Jan. 20, President Donald Trump revoked that protection, stating that the Biden-era restrictions “thwart law enforcement in or near so-called ‘sensitive’ areas.”

Catholic leaders have denounced ICE’s aggressive enforcement tactics and protested that many detained immigrants are denied the right to plead their cases.

“Authorities are now seizing brothers and sisters indiscriminately, without respect for their right to due process and their dignity as children of God,” wrote Bishop Alberto Rojas, of the Roman Catholic Diocese of San Bernardino, in a letter to parishioners June 23.

John Andrews, a spokesman for the Roman Catholic Diocese of San Bernardino, said the man detained at Our Lady of Lourdes is a longtime parishioner whose family is involved in the ministry.

“There was no one present at Our Lady of Lourdes when he was taken into custody,” Andrews told CalMatters in an email. “He was doing some landscaping work there. He is in custody so there is no one who can really speak to what transpired in that apprehension.”

The men arrested at St. Adelaide Church didn’t appear to have a connection to the parish, Andrews said: “Neither the parish nor the diocese has any information about them, their whereabouts or whether or not they were arrested.”

Rojas stated in his letter that church leaders respect law enforcement efforts to keep communities safe from violent criminals, but raiding homes, workplaces and churches creates fear and confusion: “It is not of the Gospel of Jesus Christ — which guides us in all that we do.”

He asked elected leaders to “reconsider and cease these tactics immediately, in favor of an approach that respects human rights and human dignity and builds toward a more lasting, comprehensive reform of our immigration system.”

The Catholic Church has been increasingly vocal on the plight of immigrants and refugees in recent years. The late Pope Francis traveled to Sicily to meet with immigrants from Libya on his first pastoral visit outside Rome and later rescued 12 Syrians from a refugee camp in Greece. As Trump took office in January, Pope Francis denounced his mass deportation plans as “a disgrace.”

On June 20, the day of the Inland Empire church arrests, also World Refugee Day, Michael Pham, the newly appointed bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of San Diego, joined a group of clergy to witness immigration proceedings at the federal building in San Diego.

Pham came to the U.S. as a refugee from Vietnam in 1981. He told reporters that he prayed for “wisdom and insight to help our poor brothers … through the crises in their lives.”

The raids also are beginning to draw criticism from some California Republican lawmakers. Six signed a June 27 letter calling for more moderate immigration action, arguing that raids are hurting communities and businesses.

The lawmakers — including state Sen. Rosilicie Ochoa Bogh, a Redlands Republican — endorsed the letter by Senator Suzette Martinez Valladares, a Santa Clarita Republican, asking Trump to “focus deportations on criminals” and modernize immigration policies.

While they support immigration enforcement against violent criminals, they said, immigrants without criminal records are being swept up in raids, “creating widespread fear.”

ICE workplace raids at farms, construction sites, restaurants and hotels, “are harming the communities we represent and the businesses that employ our constituents,” the letter states.

The lawmakers are asking for comprehensive immigration reform, expansion of work visas and a path to legal status for non-criminal immigrants.

This article was originally published on CalMatters and was republished under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives license.