When federal agents dragged an unidentified Spanish-speaking man from a bench outside Downey Memorial Christian Church this week, stunned bystanders—including the church’s pastor—tried to intervene. What followed was a clash of conscience and power, as ICE officials, now operating without former protections for “sensitive locations,” faced off with faith leaders demanding answers, dignity, and restraint.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) was alerted by Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller that arrests and deportations of unauthorized immigrants were “too low” in May. 

Reports show that “he berated and threatened to fire senior Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials if they did not begin detaining 3,000 migrants a day.” Additionally, Miller “threatened to fire leaders of field offices posting the bottom 10% of arrest numbers monthly.” 

This was the catalyst behind the perceived ICE riots, causing national turmoil and protests today. But not many thought ICE would detain people in churches, as happened in Los Angeles this week. 

Outside Downey Memorial Christian Church this week, faith leaders held an impromptu press conference to decry a forceful detention of an “unidentified dark-skinned man with dark hair who only spoke Spanish,” according to witnesses. One resident, Paulina Alcala, thought a man sitting on a bench outside the church needed help. 

“Once I heard that they were asking for papers, I was like, oh — this is ICE,”  Alcala said Wednesday. “(An agent) called me an illegal and said that I was going to get arrested for getting in the way — I told them that I am a USA citizen fighting for what is going on right now. The only thing I said to them was he’s just sitting under a tree, and he’s not doing anything. The moment (I said that), they got him up (and) dragged him away.”

Members and leaders of the church ran outside to help the man, including senior pastor Tanya Lopez. 

“They were wearing regular clothing — one of them was wearing Vans like the ones I’m wearing today. They had a badge across their vest that said police,” Lopez said. “I said where’s your badge number and tell me your name — and why are you wearing a mask? Police officers don’t have to hide their identity.”

The raid outside Downey Memorial Christian Church, among many others, united over 30 southern California mayors to call for an end to the ICE raids. Among them was Downey Mayor Hector Sosa. 

One claim central to the many protests in LA and across the nation from local church and political leaders is the decades-old federal policy that prohibited immigration enforcement at “sensitive locations” (e.g., schools, hospitals, clinics, churches). The Trump administration rescinded that policy in January. 

Since then, the harrowing timeline of ICE raids leading to nonviolent and dangerous protests continues to grow. 

Most of the protests have one clarion call, which was echoed by Rev. Lopez outside her church this week: “Who knows if this man is a citizen?”

“They surrounded him and started just to get ready to grab him. And that’s why I could not just stand idly by,” she recalled of the startling experience. “They kept asking us to step back and telling us that we couldn’t be there…And this will stand in my mind – when we said we don’t want this on our property, a gentleman just shouted, ‘The whole country is our property.’”