Attendance at Spanish-language services at a Catholic diocese near Los Angeles has dropped by more than half as parishioners skip weekly services for fear of being detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers.
Heightened ICE activity in and around Los Angeles has scared many immigrants and even nonimmigrants from going out to attend a church service as police activity has ramped up this summer, San Bernardino Catholic Diocese spokesman John Andrews told the Washington Examiner.
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“There’s at least a 50% drop in attendance across all of our parishes, and some more than that, some less, but for the Spanish language masses,” Andrews said in a phone call Friday.
Over the past two months, federal police have detained immigrants who are illegally in the country outside two Catholic parishes in the San Bernardino Diocese. In the first incident, ICE took several men near the church into custody.
In a second incident, an active parishioner on church property at Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church in Montclair was approached and detained by ICE outside while doing landscape work, Andrews said.
“This is a guy who’s been in the country for many years. His family is very involved in the parish. He had nothing on his record other than not having the legal status,” Andrews said, adding that the man’s eldest son had been in the Army National Guard for over a decade.
He was sent to a federal immigration detention center in Texas and, at last notice, remained detained in New Mexico.
The crackdown outside San Bernardino Diocese parishes is having a significant effect. This single Diocese serves an estimated 1.5 million Catholics east of Los Angeles between San Bernardino and Riverside, making it one of the largest in the Nation.
Bishop Alberto Rojas of the San Bernardino Diocese issued a decree on July 9 that permitted certain parishioners not to attend Sunday Mass if they genuinely feared immigration enforcement. The decision was made based on observations from diocese leadership, coupled with input from parishioners about not feeling safe walking into the church, according to Andrews.
“Dispensation from the Obligation to Attend Mass: All members of the faithful in the Diocese of San Bernardino who, due to genuine fear of immigration enforcement actions, are unable to attend Sunday Mass or Masses on holy days of obligation are dispensed from this obligation, as provided for in Canon 1247, until such time as this decree is revoked or amended,” Rojas said in a public statement posted on social media and the church website.
Rojas recommended alternative spiritual practices for those who feel unsafe or in danger going out, including personal prayer, reading Sacred Scripture, and devotions such as the Rosary.
Andrews said part of the frustration was that the Trump administration appeared to be targeting immigrants whom they had not initially vowed to go after. As a presidential candidate, Trump plans to prioritize criminal illegal immigrants for deportation, but ICE’s efforts have overwhelmingly resulted in noncriminals in the country being arrested and removed.
Jessica Vaughan, director of police studies at the Center for Immigration Studies in Washington, said ICE’s actions are not random but based on specific targets or businesses.
“This idea that ICE is just randomly picking people up or patrolling the streets looking for people that look like they could be illegal aliens, unfortunately, is a common misconception that is a narrative spread deliberately by opponents of ICE,” Vaughan said. “In reality, ICE’s work is very targeted. … It’s unfortunate people have the idea that they cannot go about their daily lives.”
Andrews had also heard of fear among people who are not illegal immigrants but fear they could get caught up and targeted by federal law enforcement based on the color of their skin or ethnicity.
“People who are here legally are also afraid of somehow being drawn into this,” Andrews said. “Obviously, the Hispanic community is a big part of this in terms of who’s being targeted, but by no means [is it] limited to that.”
Historically, White House administrations have chosen not to allow ICE to enter hospitals, schools, or places of worship. However, when President Donald Trump took office in January, his administration removed that restriction.
Although ICE is allowed to enter one of those formerly protected facilities, an ICE official told the Washington Examiner earlier this week that claims officials are targeting churches to arrest people inside were false.
ICE SAYS CLAIMS ITS OFFERS TARGET CHURCHES AND HOSPITALS ARE ‘FALSE’
“Instances of a so-called enforcement in a medical facility or church … [are] false,” an ICE official authorized to speak with the media wrote in an email.
Andrews maintained that recent news of arrests outside churches was having a chilling effect on the community because it made them “less likely” to want to go to church, as evidenced by the drop in attendance at Spanish-language services.