Amid ICE raids, bishop tells SoCal worshippers they can stay home on Sundays
Bishop Alberto Rojas of the Diocese of San Bernardino wrote in the decree Tuesday that many church-goers have shared 'fears of attending mass due to potential immigration enforcement action' and that 'such fear constitutes a grave inconvenience that may impede the spiritual good of the faithful.'
In lieu of Sunday service, Rojas encouraged his members to 'maintain their spiritual communion' by praying the rosary or reading scripture and directed diocese ministers to offer support and compassion to the affected.
Since early June, countless Southern California families have been living in fear and gone underground amid an extraordinary federal immigration enforcement push by the Trump administration. Nearly 2,800 people have been caught up in the sweeps in the L.A. area alone, including U.S. citizens and hundreds of undocumented immigrants without any criminal record.
The threat of an immigration raid has rippled through all aspects of Southern California life, including church attendance, where some houses of worship say up to a third or half their congregants are no longer showing up in person.
According to the National Catholic Reporter, multiple people were arrested at or near diocese churches on June 20, including a man at Our Lady of Lourdes in Montclair, which ICE officials dispute.
'The accusation that ICE entered a church to make an arrest [is] FALSE,' wrote Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin in an email to The Times. 'The illegal alien chose to pull into the church parking lot [and] officers then safely made the arrest.'
Days later, Rojas wrote a message to worshipers on Facebook.
He said that he respected and appreciated law enforcement's role in keeping 'communities safe from violent criminals,' but added that 'authorities are now seizing brothers and sisters indiscriminately, without respect for their right to due process and their dignity as children of God.'
As for his latest edict allowing worshipers to forgo Mass, Rojas said it will remain in effect until further notice or until the circumstances 'necessitating this decree are sufficiently resolved.'
Times staff writers Andrew Castillo, Rachel Uranga and Queenie Wong contributed to this report.
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Los Angeles Times
an hour ago
- Los Angeles Times
Anxiety over ICE raids heat up Costa Mesa City Hall, as residents call for action
Angst over ICE activity in Costa Mesa reached a boiling point Tuesday, as locals poured into City Hall demanding support and protection for undocumented residents — a viewpoint that prompted backlash from MAGA supporters in the crowd and continually disrupted that night's City Council meeting. Dozens of people, perhaps drawn by fliers and social media posts soliciting action, sought assurances from city leaders that Costa Mesa police would not collaborate with federal immigration enforcement efforts. They asked officials to require ICE agents to unmask and identify themselves before initiating a detention and sought the city's support of legal defense funds, rapid response advocacy and mutual aid efforts. Such actions are already happening in other cities, such as Santa Ana, where officials are calling for a full withdrawal of federal agents, and Huntington Park, where local police arrested a man suspected of impersonating a border patrol agent. Costa Mesa officials last month issued a statement assuring police and city employees would neither enforce immigration laws nor investigate immigration status. Meanwhile, a new page on the city's website lists resources and local aid organizations offering local assistance. But dozens of local residents speaking during the public comments portion of Tuesday's meeting urged leaders to take steps to make it safer for Latinos, who've been noticeably absent from the public eye, to return to their normal daily routines, jobs and lives. '[Racial] profiling is so rampant and unjust, legal residents and U.S. citizens are being rounded up,' said a Costa Mesa woman, who later identified herself as 'Brooke,' one of the people who posted the fliers calling for action. 'I applaud the measures that have already been taken. But, respectfully, that's not enough,' she said. 'This is about justice, dignity and the safety of our community — please act boldly, and act now.' Many of the people addressing the council were repeatedly disrupted by chants and retorts from a group of audience members wearing 'Make America Great Again' hats and shirts bearing slogans such as 'Donald Trump was Right.' One member of that cohort was Nick Taurus, who lost a 2022 primary run for the U.S. Assembly's 40th District and is no stranger to political dustups and scuffles of all sorts. The Orange County resident praised the work of ICE agents. 'I think ICE should be allowed to act with impunity — they should be allowed to go to every Home Depot, every school, every quinceañera and build the wall and deport every single one of these guys,' he said, holding up a large American flag. 'Because they don't make our country great, they make it worse, they bring it down, they use public services and Americans are sick and tired of it.' An ongoing series of verbal volleys between the two factions caused Mayor John Stephens to repeatedly call for order. He asked uniformed Costa Mesa police officers posted inside council chambers to settle the crowd. At least twice, MAGA supporters were escorted outside City Hall for shouting over others attempting to address the council. Despite the rhetoric, numerous speakers shared their personal family histories, recalling America's Mexican repatriation, during which Mexicans in the U.S. were deported or displaced for being a perceived economic threat to white Americans, or forebears pursued and persecuted by Nazi and Soviet soldiers during World War II. 'We're in the early stages, but it could get a lot worse,' warned a Costa Mesa resident identifying himself as Jacob, who spoke about his family's imperiled escape to America. 'It's a huge thing in our history less than 100 years ago, and to play willful ignorance to it, it's disheartening. [But] you guys have the power to help your constituents out.' Many pleaded their cases with help from a translator, including Patricia Aburto Calderilla, who described ICE agents regularly posted on Costa Mesa's Bay Street. 'We're all here, because as you can see we, as everyone has said, we are terrorized,' Calderilla said. 'If you don't put a stop to this, this is going to continue. And what are students going to do? They're going to need to go back to school, and Latino parents are not going to be sending their kids back — moms are scared. You should do something.' Speaking in their own comments, some council members shared their personal viewpoints, encouraging residents to call 911 if they believe an illegal detention is taking place and sharing support for legislative efforts at the state level to enhance accountability among immigration enforcers. 'These actions are not only alarming, they raise serious questions about due process, constitutional protections and the safety of our community overall,' said Councilmember Andrea Marr. 'What is happening is not just a legal matter, it's a moral one.' Marr asked that her council colleagues consider passing a resolution in support of a bill that would require agents to provide IDs and prohibit them from wearing masks. She also requested that they consider financially contributing to local assistance organizations or partnering with a group to provide legal aid, ideas seconded by Councilwoman Arlis Reynolds and Mayor Pro Tem Manual Chavez. Councilmember Loren Gameros castigated the antics of 'fearmongers' in the audience who, before being escorted outside, attempted to dissuade others from speaking. 'Last time I checked, being undocumented wasn't a crime,' he said. 'Raising your family here is not a crime. Taking your kids to school should not be a crime. What I see happening right now creates a long-term problem. I certainly wouldn't want this to be a permanent black eye in our country. I believe it needs to stop and we need to create change.'
Washington Post
2 hours ago
- Washington Post
Inside ‘Alligator Alcatraz,' detainees report relentless mosquitos, limited water
Two weeks after it opened, a temporary migrant detention center in the Everglades is facing expensive logistical challenges: portable toilets routinely back up, sewage needs to be collected and trucked out, and swarms of mosquitoes attack detainees and staff alike. Without permanent structures, electricity or running water, drinking and bathing water has to be brought in several times a day but is still in short supply, and rainwater leaks into the tents that protect detainees' chain-link cells, according to interviews with three former guards and phone interviews with detainees. Their accounts offer details of conditions inside the $450 million detention center, which has become a symbol for the Trump administration's aggressive immigration enforcement policies and been dubbed 'Alligator Alcatraz' by Republicans. Five other states are considering using the site as a model, said Homeland Security Secretary Kristi L. Noem, as Immigration and Customs Enforcement prepares to double the nation's immigrant detention capacity to 100,000 beds. The location and the makeshift construction of the center has prompted an outcry from Democrats, environmental activists, local tribal leaders and immigration attorneys, who say it's inhumane and costly. State officials, who have not permitted independent inspections of the camp requested by lawmakers, dispute the claims. 'The plumbing and sewage claims are false. The facility is in good working order, and detainees have access to drinking water, showers, and clean facilities for hygiene,' Stephanie Hartman, deputy director of communications for the Florida Division of Emergency Management, said in an email. Three former guards at the facility said they were attracted to the job because of its pay — online ads and a hiring document reviewed by The Washington Post show they were offered $26 an hour plus generous overtime: $39 an hour. The Post is not identifying them, as they cited fears of retribution or having signed nondisclosure agreements. Two of the guards said they were hired by Critical Response Strategies, a Jacksonville, Florida-based consulting company, to work on a rotation of between 21 to 28 days, with seven to 14 days off in between, according to one hiring agreement reviewed by The Post. Prison guards in Florida typically earn about $22 an hour, according to the state's Department of Corrections. One former guard said she left her job at another South Florida correctional facility because the pay at Alligator Alcatraz was so enticing. She quit after about a week because she grew upset about the conditions for staff and detainees. Both of the former guards hired by CRS said they were asked to begin working the same day they applied online. CRS did not return a request for comment. CRS has a $78 million contract to help manage the facility, including providing a warden, camp manager and correction officers, according to Florida's contract website. Staff members are issued a can of mosquito repellent their first day of work, but detainees are sprayed only when they arrive, according to the three former contractors hired as detention guards. 'The mosquitoes are filling the bathrooms, the showers. You go in the shower, you shower with a million mosquitoes. They give you bug spray, but that still doesn't help,' said a retired South Florida county jail officer who worked as a contracted guard for nearly two weeks before she was fired by her CRS supervisor for reasons she said were not explained to her. She spoke on the condition of anonymity due to fear of retribution by state officials and supporters of President Donald Trump's immigration policies. In phone interviews facilitated by family members and their attorneys, detainees described the mosquitoes in the South Florida wetlands as relentless. 'Most of us have skin irritations from mosquitoes; they don't give us spray. All of us worry that we'll get a disease because of the mosquitoes,' said Anderson Miranda, 25, who came to the United States from Guatemala when he was 16 years old. 'The mosquitoes don't let you sleep,' said Juan Javier Gonzalez, 49, who migrated from the Dominican Republic. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) used emergency powers to seize a little-used airfield in the Big Cypress National Preserve next to Everglades National Park to build what he said is a 'makeshift detention space' to house people arrested by ICE agents. The state spent eight days erecting the site: tents to house detainees, sleeping pods for guards and generators to power the camp, which state officials have said will cost $450 million a year to run. The detention camp has been enthusiastically endorsed by Trump and other Republicans who point to the natural surroundings — namely alligators — as deterrents to escape. Asked about the concerns raised by detainees and former guards, the state defended conditions at the Everglades detention center, saying that detainees have access to potable water and that full-size showers are available daily without restrictions. 'Each individual is issued a personal cup they can refill at any time, and bottled water is provided at meals,' Hartman said in an email. 'Tanks are regularly sanitized, flushed, and tested to ensure water quality.' There have been no heat-related or life-threatening incidents, Hartman said, adding that detainees have access to phone and video calls with their attorneys. The center has a workforce of more than 1,000 people, state officials say, including workers drawn from ICE and the Florida National Guard, as well guards hired by private contractors. The state and the Department of Homeland Security have refused to say how many detainees are housed there; lawmakers who toured the site on Saturday said they were told it was more than 750. Florida Republicans who visited the facility described it as clean and well run. Several noted they tested the beds and found them comfortable. 'What I saw was a pretty typical footprint in the emergency management disaster space,' state Sen. Jay Collins (R-Tampa) said in an interview. 'These are well-built, well-developed tents that are put down in a very safe manner. There's plenty of logistics. I saw backup generators. I saw a supply structure in depth and breadth. As you stepped into the facilities, they were incredibly clean, well maintained.' But Democrats who took the tour said they experienced a 'staged, sanitized' version of the camp that left them still concerned about the welfare of detainees. They were dressed in orange jumpsuits with some shackled to a bench, some lawmakers said. Each wore wristbands indicating what kind of offense they allegedly committed — red for a violent offense. They were 'crammed in like sardines' into cages with more than 30 other detainees, Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Florida) said in an interview. After more than two hours, the lawmakers were hustled off the grounds once it appeared there would be rain, several of them said in interviews. Some lawmakers asked to stay so they could see if there would be flooding but were told to leave, state Rep. Angie Nixon (D-Jacksonville) said. (Some of the detention camp's 'soft-sided' tents started to flood during a visit by Trump, according to videos shot by local media.) Lawmakers should be allowed to return for unannounced visits, Nixon said. 'What we saw wasn't the day-to-day reality,' she said. 'But we did see a huge waste of taxpayer dollars.' Nixon and four fellow state lawmakers who were denied entrance to independently inspect the facility have sued to gain access to the site. The Trump administration is increasingly relying on soft-sided facilities, like the ones used in the Everglades facility, for immigrant detention, including tents that have housed migrants in Cuba's Guantánamo Bay and on the premises of Miami's overcrowded Krome detention center. Despite being less permanent than brick-and-mortar detention centers, these facilities tend to be more expensive because of the costs to quickly assemble, staff and insure them against a higher likelihood of possible risks, said Jason Houser, who was ICE chief of staff from 2021 to 2023. Florida authorities have said Alligator Alcatraz could house about 3,000 migrants this year, at a cost of about $411 per bed a day. By contrast, ICE said last year that detention beds cost an average of $157.20 per day. Staffers are housed in small portable units that one former guard described as a '5-by-5 cubicle' with a bunk bed. The walk to the latrine was long and terrifying, said one of the guards, who did not sign a nondisclosure agreement but also spoke on the condition of anonymity due to fear of retaliation. 'They told us about alligators and Florida panthers and venomous snakes and different types of creatures,' she said. 'And if we walk at night, they said just have a buddy with us just in case.' She and other former guards said the port-a-potties for staff have backed up, the prepared food is generally cold and they were required to stand for the entirety of their 12-hour shifts, save for a sole 15-minute meal break. Conditions have also been grim for some detainees, according to guards, detainees and their relatives, who have talked to them by phone and described water pooling on the floors, meals of cold ham sandwiches and lack of hygiene basics such as deodorant, toothbrushes and toothpaste. The air conditioning stops working sometimes in the middle of the day, and the portable communal toilets in the caged cells have backed up on occasion, causing an unbearable stench, the former guards said. To pass the time, detainees have created a soccer ball out of a towel or crafted dominoes out of pieces of cardboard cut from lunch boxes, according to a former guard and an immigration attorney. A recreation yard made up of AstroTurf placed over concrete under a tent is also available. 'They're laying down all day,' one former guard said of the detainees. Some detainees were sick, but staffers were told not to wear masks 'because it was going to cause a frenzy' about the possibility of the spread of sicknesses, she said. One detainee said he went four days without a shower, according to a call recorded by the wife of another Cuban-born detainee, who spoke on the condition of anonymity due to fear of retribution, that was shared with The Post. Another reported being taken to shower facilities only to find no running water. The conditions are worse than the county jails they were transferred from, some said. Facing questions about conditions at the facility this week, DeSantis defended the detention center, which he has taken to calling 'Alligator.' The state has paused plans to set up more detention centers until 'Alligator Alcatraz is filled up,' DeSantis said during a news conference Wednesday. 'I'd rather just channel everyone to Alligator.' 'We're not doing this just to let people have food and shelter, although they do get that. All the minimum standards are upheld,' he said. 'But the reality is it's there to be a quick processing center, we have a runway right there. They can just be flown back to their home country.' Lori Rozsa reported from West Palm Beach, Florida, and David Ovalle from Miami. Douglas MacMillan contributed to this report.
New York Times
2 hours ago
- New York Times
Immigrants File Class-Action Lawsuit to Stop ICE Courthouse Arrests
A coalition of legal groups representing immigrants filed a class-action lawsuit against the Trump administration on Wednesday, arguing that the federal government's campaign to arrest people at immigration courthouses so that they can be swiftly deported is unlawful and violates due process protections. The lawsuit, filed by Democracy Forward and three other legal organizations on behalf of 12 immigrants, aims to stop the arrests at immigration courts, a contentious tactic that the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency began using in May to increase deportations nationwide. From New York to California, ICE agents have arrested immigrants appearing for routine proceedings at immigration courts, prompting criticism from Democrats and activists that ICE is unfairly targeting people who are following the rules by showing up to court. Federal agents, typically wearing masks, have become a mainstay in courthouse lobbies and hallways, where they have arrested scores of migrants who are leaving courtrooms and who are placed in expedited deportation proceedings that don't require hearings. The lawsuit was filed in the Federal District Court for the District of Columbia against the Department of Justice, which oversees the immigration courts; the Department of Homeland Security; and ICE. Several officials at federal agencies also were sued. The plaintiffs include 12 immigrants, identified only by pseudonyms, from Cuba, Ecuador, Guinea, Venezuela and elsewhere. Many had entered the country without authorization from 2021 to 2024 and had applied for asylum. They were arrested when they showed up at courthouses this year. Most are in detention — in New York, Pennsylvania and Texas — and fear persecution in their home countries, the lawsuit said. One immigrant was deported to Ecuador less than a month after he was arrested in June. 'Noncitizens, including most of the individual plaintiffs here, have been abruptly ripped from their families, lives, homes and jobs for appearing in immigration court, a step required to enable them to proceed with their applications for permission to remain in this country,' the lawsuit says. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
