ICE sparks fury for reportedly detaining pastors — then threatening to take their kids

Faith leaders are calling on US Immigration and Customs Enforcement to immediately free a pair of pastors who advocates say were wrongfully detained by ICE agents in Texas on Thursday while traveling to a religious retreat.Pastor Nepthalí Zozaya Saucedo and his wife, pastor Cinthia Saraí Cardona Otero, were detained by federal immigration enforcers after arriving at McAllen International Airport.According to the couple and their church leaders, the longtime pastors at the Comunidad Cristiana Emanuel Assemblies of God congregation in Edinburg, Texas were on their way to a marriage retreat in North Carolina organized by the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association when they were detained and taken to a US Border Patrol processing center in McAllen.At a Friday press conference hosted by leaders from the Assemblies of God and the Latino Christian National Network, LCN board member Sandy Ovalle said that the couple has valid R-1 religious worker visas.“We are calling for their immediate release, the protection of their due process rights, and an urgent oversight into ICE’s conduct,” Ovalle said. “No one should be pressured to give up their rights under the threat of losing their children.”A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson told Religion News Service that the pastors are “illegal aliens” who overstayed their visas.Addressing the conference by phone from the detention center, Nepthalí said that the couple was threatened with separation from their US citizen children if they did not sign papers authorizing their “voluntary” deportation.“They spoke with us about separation—to be separated from our children and even as married people,” he said, according to Religion News Service. “They spoke about how much time that we could end up spending here.”Speaking during the press conference, Comunidad Cristiana Emanuel senior pastor Sarai Martinez Luna said, “I think it’s very cruel that somebody that had no status for deportation be pressured to sign a voluntary deportation based on the separation of their children.”Friday’s news conference followed a Wednesday press briefing by faith leaders at the Texas Capitol in Austin to condemn the killings of Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero in Maine, Juan Jairo Coronilla Durán in Florida, and Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Houston.“This is not of God. This is no peace that we want a part of because let’s be honest, this isn’t a peacekeeping initiative. This is a terror campaign with the mission of traumatizing our neighbors until they self-deport,” said Dan De Leon, senior pastor at Friends Congregational Church in College Station. “We don’t need terror. We need peace.”Elyse Rosenberg of the National Council of Jewish Women and Temple Beth Shalom in Austin said during the press conference that “throughout our history, we have repeatedly seen first-hand the consequences of governments exercising unchecked power on vulnerable populations.”Friday’s event also preceded nationwide vigils in more than 300 communities across the nation on Saturday to demand justice for the dozens of people who have been killed by federal enforcers or died in ICE custody during President Donald Trump’s second term.“We refuse to grieve quietly. We refuse to accept this terror and violence as inevitable," Crystal Cron, executive director of Presente! Maine, said ahead of the vigils. “Johan Sebastián should still be here with his wife and daughter—and instead, his name joins a growing list of people killed by an institution that treats our communities as disposable.”“This is bigger than one shooting,” Cron added. “We will not stop fighting until there is justice for the Durán Guerrero family and a total dismantling of this lawless, criminal agency that took him from them.”

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A father has been nabbed by ICE agents just 12 days after the premature birth of his daughter. Juan Chavez Velasco, 35, was grabbed by Immigration and Customs Enforcement while on his way to deliver milk to the newborn in Weslaco, Texas. Immigration agents pulled in front of his car and hauled him off despite Chavez telling the team he had a wife in the hospital and he was protected by DACA. The deferred action for childhood arrivals response did little for the agents, who said it "doesn't matter" and took Chavez away. Chavez, who says he "never got to hold" his child before being taken by ICE agents to Webb County Detention Center, is one of a growing number of Dreamers who believed they were protected by DACA before being nabbed by agents. The 35-year-old, speaking with MSNOW, said, "I feel betrayed. I feel very sad and heartbroken because I would have thought that the Trump administration would be more compassionate towards people like me who contribute to the country and have basically lived here all our lives."I love this country. I love what I’ve been able to accomplish here. We’re all contributing, we’re all paying taxes, this is our home. I’m not asking for a free ride. "I feel like a majority of people would agree that we deserve something because it wasn’t our fault to be here and because we love this country. We want to be here, we want to be part of this. We want to be Americans, because we’re Americans at heart."His wife, Villarreal, added, "He has no criminal history. Never has had any type of criminal history. He did everything right." Their daughter, Elianna, was born on February 6.Chavez Velasco’s DACA status expired on March 10 while he was being held at Webb County Detention Center, and despite filing a renewal request with the government. Jodi Goodwin, Chavez Velasco’s attorney, hopes the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services renews his DACA and that ICE releases him. “We’re straddling a tightrope, because we need time and we don’t have that kind of time if they’re going to put him on a plane,” Goodwin said. “I don’t have a lot of faith in what we’re doing here, because I don’t have any faith in ICE whatsoever."