CNA Staff, Jun 12, 2025 /
15:17 pm
As U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) increases its raids and deportations in Puerto Rico, several of the island’s bishops have expressed alarm and reminded Catholics of their duty to welcome and protect those in need.
During a June 11 press conference at the Pontifical Catholic University of Puerto Rico, Bishop Ángel Luis Ríos Matos of Mayagüez said he issued orders to parishes in his diocese not to provide information to federal agents “unless supported by a court order.”
However, he added, “even with a court order, when it comes to justice for the poor, a higher justice prevails.”
“If consequences must be paid, they will be. I don’t call this civil disobedience but rather obedience to the doctrine of justice and charity. We must obey God before men,” the bishop said.
The bishop’s statement was met with applause by those present, including Archbishop Roberto González Nieves of San Juan and Bishop Rubén Antonio González Medina of Ponce.
Since taking office, U.S. President Donald Trump has ramped up efforts to deport unauthorized immigrants in the country. In Puerto Rico, a U.S. territory, many undocumented migrants hail from the Dominican Republic.
The governor of Puerto Rico, Jenniffer González-Colón, a Republican who supported Trump in the elections, said her government would not oppose the deportations, including those conducted in churches and hospitals, because the island “cannot afford” to violate it and risk losing access to federal funds.
As reported by the Spanish newspaper El País, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has detained 445 people in Puerto Rico since raids began on Jan. 26. While the majority are Dominicans, DHS said a number of undocumented migrants were from Haiti, Venezuela, and Mexico.
Sandra Colón, a DHS office spokesperson, told El País that “81 people have been removed to their country through voluntary departure or expedited removal.”
The deportations on the island prompted a statement from Bishop Eusebio Ramos Morales of Caguas, who said the deportations “while presented as legal, are unjust and immoral when executed without mercy or respect for human dignity.”
“From our island of Puerto Rico, many of us were led to believe that these practices would not affect us directly. However, we have witnessed how immigration agents raid impoverished and vulnerable communities, especially those of our Dominican brothers and sisters, whose contribution to the economic, social, and cultural development of Puerto Rico is invaluable,” Ramos wrote.
The bishop said increased raids by ICE have caused families to live in fear, children to be absent from school, the sick to be without access to medical care, and “many without the ability to earn a living with dignity.”
“This situation cries out to heaven,” he added.
At the June 11 press conference, Ríos also said that should agents “come to request information or detain people inside the church, the right of sanctuary — which is recognized worldwide and in America — prevails and protects the rights of the immigrant.”
However, in January, the Trump administration rescinded the designation that categorized places of worship as “protected areas” safe from immigration enforcement.
CNA reached out to Ríos on June 12 to inquire whether federal authorities have attempted to detain people in diocesan churches. However, he was unavailable for comment.
(Story continues below)
Subscribe to our daily newsletter
Under the Trump administration directive, churches, mosques, synagogues, and other religious institutions no longer hold special protection, thus granting federal agents increased discretion to conduct raids and arrests.
The policy was challenged in court by 27 Christian and Jewish groups, who argued the directive violated religious freedom rights protected by the Constitution. However, in April, U.S. District Judge Dabney Friedrich ruled that the groups’ concerns did not have a legal standing.
The government’s directive on protected areas, especially places of worship, represented only “a modest change in the internal guidance that DHS is providing its immigration officers and does not mandate conducting enforcement activities during worship services or while social service ministries are being provided,” the ruling stated.
Meanwhile, in a local television interview, ICE Homeland Security Investigations Special Agent in Charge for Puerto Rico, Rebecca González-Ramos, assured that federal agents would “not enter churches, hospitals or schools” to search for undocumented migrants.
“We will not enter and we do not separate family units, either,” she said in a June 10 Telemundo interview.
Junno Arocho Esteves is a freelance journalist based in Malmö, Sweden. Born and raised in the United States, he covered the Vatican as a correspondent for 12 years for several news outlets, including ZENIT, Vatican News, and Catholic News Service. He has also served as a communications officer for the Institute of Anthropology at Rome’s Pontifical Gregorian University and communications consultant for the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors.
