WASHINGTON – Padre Vidal Rivas has been a priest for over three decades. This is the first time he’s ever kept the doors locked during mass.
“There is so much fear that people don’t even feel safe in churches,” Rivas said. “We celebrate with the doors closed and even have guards watching the doors and signs everywhere and people keeping an eye on things around the neighborhood.”
ICE apprehensions have skyrocketed in D.C. in recent months.
“The fear has been so great that many people have left the parish,” Rivas said. “I believe we have lost more than 70 people who no longer come to our church. Just this past Sunday, November 30th, we said goodbye to six people who are returning to Mexico and El Salvador. They can no longer live here.”
ICE agents directly apprehended 88 people in D.C. from January through July 2025. Then, something changed when President Trump declared a crime emergency here. Between August and October, ICE arrested over 1,100 people in D.C. Fewer than 100 have criminal convictions.
“I even witnessed a person being arrested by immigration in September,” Rivas said, “and I was right there in front of him, and I even had to start yelling at him, ‘please, boy, let yourself be arrested,’ because they were holding him in a very violent manner.”
Across the DMV, religious leaders like Rivas say their faith drives them to speak out, organize and take direct action to support their immigrant neighbors.
