‘The fear is wide’ - LA pastors minister to migrants amid immigration raids
‘There are so many unknowns right now.’
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As immigration raids continue, parishes in Los Angeles have reported a significant decline in Sunday Mass attendance among Hispanic parishioners.
With many local Catholics saying they are scared to leave their homes, pastors are finding new ways to minister to their flocks.
Recent data suggests that between 800,000-900,000 undocumented immigrants reside in Los Angeles County — nearly 10 percent of the county’s population.
On June 6, Immigration and Custom enforcement (ICE) officers began conducting raids on immigrant communities across the Los Angeles region. Spontaneous raids have taken place at shops, in neighborhoods, and at restaurants, among other places.
“These raids have stirred up a spirit of fear that has gripped so many of our immigrants, especially in the Hispanic community,” according to Father Parker Sandoval, vice-chancellor and senior director of ministerial services in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles.
“The fear is not limited to those who are undocumented. The fear extends to those with some sort of document who also fear that their document could be revoked.”
“The fear is wide, the fear runs deep, and this impacts their day-to-day behavior including the practice of the faith. We are seeing many parishes report a significant downturn in Mass attendance on Sunday,” Sandoval continued.
Covering nearly 9,000 square miles in southern California, the Archdiocese of Los Angeles has a large Hispanic population. Sandoval told The Pillar that of the 4 million Catholics residing in the archdiocese, more than 70% are Hispanic.
“The majority (of Hispanics) are not immigrants. The vast majority are U.S. born,” Sandoval said. “However, their parents may be immigrants, their extended family may be immigrants, or they may live in a neighborhood that has a very high immigrant population. Immigrants comprise a healthy percentage of the general population and likewise the Church.”
Across the country, ICE figures indicate the agency has arrested some 1,200 people per day in June. To date, no raids have occurred on Catholic Church property. But there have been reports of ICE officials and vehicles operating within the near vicinity of parish property.
And at least one Christian church in LA says a man was detained by ICE officials outside the church building.
“While ICE has been reported and confirmed to have been in close proximity to churches, ICE has never stepped foot on a church property yet,” Sandoval said.
‘Very similar to Covid’
Father Gary Mueller, a Vincentian, has served as pastor at the inner-city parish of St. Vincent’s for three years. Ministering to a predominantly Hispanic community, Mueller has seen a significant decline in Mass attendance in recent weeks.
“We have five Masses on a Sunday… All of those Masses are down between 30-50%,” Mueller told The Pillar. “We have a significant number of undocumented immigrants.”
“When trouble like this arises, [people] just don’t come. They stay home.”
In the past few weeks, Mueller has been visiting parishioners at their homes, talking with them about how the raids are impacting their lives. Many, he said, stay at home all day, fearful that they may be caught in a spontaneous raid and never return to their families.
“It's not only that they don't come to St. Vincent’s,” Mueller said. “They also do not go to their jobs and they do not take their kids to school. There has been a significant drop off in attendance at many of our evening gatherings. Many, many people are just simply staying home.”

A few nights ago, Monsignor John Moretta, the longtime pastor at Resurrection Church in Boyle Heights, visited a few of his favorite local restaurants searching for dinner, only to find that many had already closed for the evening, as many staff members were scared to come to work.
“It is very similar to COVID, when people had to stay in, when people were frightened to be near other people,” Moretta told The Pillar.
Moretta said Masses at his parish have dropped by 20% or more in attendance recently. He’s surprised that the impact has not been greater.
While immigration enforcement has always been present, the intensity and seemingly random nature of these raids present new challenges for the community.
“There is a day and night difference. There was no fear of immigration raids at all before this. The state of California, and Los Angeles, in particular, is a sanctuary city,” Mueller said. “We could speak about a mountain of problems that our Hispanic community has faced, but illegal immigration, frankly, is not one of them.”
Sandoval shared that churches have traditionally served as sanctuary sites for immigrant communities. But in this case, many people do not seem to trust that they will be safe, even at Mass.
“Immigrants know that the one place they could turn for help in almost any need was the church,” Sandoval said. “When no one else could feed them, clothe them, provide their children education, provide them counsel, fill in the blank, the church was the place they came with confidence.”
“To the degree they are afraid to come to the church, I fear that they will feel helpless.”
‘Between a hard place and a hard place’
Pastors who spoke with The Pillar said they feel helpless as they watch the ICE raids unfold, posing what they see as an unjust threat to members of their flocks.
“I believe in the rule of law. And I believe that sovereign states have a right to secure their borders. That goes back to Thomas Aquinas, going back to Augustine and the whole idea of the ordo amoris that's well rooted in Catholic teaching and tradition,” Mueller said.
“When people come to the United States they should go through the due processes that immigrants need to go through.”
“On the other hand, I have talked to a lot of our people who say these raids and immigration enforcement are not fair, because over the last several years the borders were sort of thrown open and it looked like a welcome mat. So people took advantage of it, desperate people.”
Mueller said he has been inspired by the faith of people in the local Hispanic community, and he has learned from their devotion and love of the Church.
“They are very warm, very responsive people,” Mueller said. “It is a very active parish which in our postmodern culture of ours, where many think that the Church is fading away, that is not the image you get when you come to a church like St. Vincent's.”
“These families are very intact, they are very devoted to each other. They're very devoted inter-generationally to their grandparents, they do not just put their grandparents in nursing homes, they take care of them.”

Moretta was horrified to hear of one longtime parishioner who was arrested and deported. The man had no criminal background and had worked at the same tire shop for more than two decades, the priest said.
“He has had the same job for 22 years. He was on a break and when he went to go back inside, ICE came and took him away. Right now, he's at the border in Otay Mesa,” Moretta said.
“The president promised that he was going to take care of the terrorists, all the drug dealers, all the gangsters … It shows a change of heart when they are going after people like this man, who has raised three children with his wife.”
Moretta wrote a letter on the parishioner’s behalf, asking that he be returned to his family.
“The last sentence of my letter was this: ‘People consider him to be a good human being, and those are the people we are throwing out of the country because they do not have papers.’”
At its core, this crisis is one of human dignity, said Father Luis Espinoza, the pastor at St. Agnes Catholic Church.
“I hope that everyone can understand the gift that they have of being born in this country, but that it is something that can be shared with others and that those others are not enemies,” Espinoza told The Pillar.
“These are not people that have come to damage us in any way. These people share the same faith, they share their values of family and of service to others and to God.”
“Sometimes the difference in language or in skin color can seem a bit more like a real wall of separation rather than just simply the fact that it’s part of God’s original design.”
Espinoza said he was heartbroken to see the raids. He wants to support his parishioners, but feels helpless in many respects.
In some cases, parishioners are concerned about missing Mass on Sundays.
“These people want to fulfill their Sunday obligations. They are people of deep faith who have been well catechized. So it’s like I am kind of caught between a hard place and a hard place,” Espinoza said. “I can’t say no — I’m not a bishop,” the priest noted, referencing the canonical norms which allow a pastor to dispense from the Sunday obligation in individual cases, but not generally or for an entire community.
“I can not say [to them]: ‘You are free not to come.’ So I say, ‘Watch it on tv but do not let fear drive you.’”
‘For the long haul’
Priests across the archdiocese are not expecting to regain their congregations overnight.
“This is a long-term issue, I think it will last for at least the term of this presidency,” Mueller said.
“Our numbers are down, people are afraid to be going out. We are expecting that this is going to be an issue for the long haul.”

In the past, the archdiocese has sought to provide clear guidance for immigration issues. But the random nature of recent ICE operations has made forming a broad pastoral strategy difficult.
“There are so many unknowns right now, whereas in the past we had a clearer sense of ICE priorities, we could advise our people to know their risk and to avoid putting themselves into any situation of risk,” Sandoval said. “Things seem to be more random now and therefore the perception is that anyone could be at risk.”
“So pastors feel helpless in what they can practically advise for their immigrant parishioners, but they are all of the mind that fear is not a pastoral strategy.”
The archdiocese is keeping a close eye on ongoing ICE activity, working to develop a plan and find ways to assist pastors.
“We are in regular contact with local authorities and we are in regular contact with our parishes, to hear the patterns and the stories so that we have a pulse on what's going on,” Sandoval said.
“Even though things seem to be in flux right now and there are more unknowns than knowns, we are working to understand the situation.”
Meanwhile, pastors are doing their best to minister to their parishioners despite the uncertainty.
At St. Vincent’s, Mueller is implementing a national pastoral program called Pastoral Migratio, which prioritizes gathering in parishioners' homes for smaller liturgies and events.
“We are going to shift gears to Pastoral Migratio and encourage these groups in the parish to help people meet in their homes, because their homes are where they feel safe,” Mueller said. “Whether they will feel safe going to other people’s homes remains to be seen.”
Moretta has sought to increase education initiatives within the parish, instructing his parishioners on how to address and interact with any ICE agents they might encounter.
“It is taking a toll…They have to look behind them and in front of them and want to see if ICE is going to come to their house,” Moretta said. “We have tried to educate people. We have educated people on what to do if they do come to your house and they do not have a warrant.”
As for Espinoza, he has been trying to reiterate one message to his people — that no matter what happens, God will be by their side.
“We are dealing with human beings that are afraid, that can lose hope,” Espinoza said.
“My biggest thing is to help them become rooted in their own ability to know that God is with them and that yeah, maybe they are going to have to make choices that are going to be difficult and hard, but that God will continue to be there for them.”
Ultimately, Espinoza hopes the crisis will lead his parishioners to a greater intentionality in accompanying their neighbors, particularly those who are homebound.
“I think that it is going to make us a stronger community,” Espinoza said. “I am a man of faith, so even if I feel helpless, I'm not hopeless.”
“It is going to call forth a deeper way of evangelizing as we continue to offer support and accompaniment to the men and women who in the families may be undocumented and need our assistance.”
Biden was cruel to give these people false hope. But the Democrats went too far, and the border crisis got so bad that it created the necessary political will to finally fix this issue.
Thanks for this coverage. I would urge my fellow conservative Catholics not to look away from this