LOS ANGELES.- One Los Angeles Christian Church denounced that agents of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Service (ICE) broke into “a religious event” and threatened the people who were there at the time, after detaining at least one Mexican whom they had already deported.
The incident, captured on video, It happened on the morning of January 26th. when the members of Hills United Methodist Church Hispanic Missionin the city of North Hills, Los Angeles County, carried out a food delivery and an activity with children and mothers, as part of the ministry of help to the community.
“Our sacred place was desecrated. “Our food ministry is an expression of God’s love for the hungry, and as a result of ICE’s senseless actions, we were forced to stop it,” Pastor Ervin Adin Aguilón, who leads the Church, said at a press conference Monday.
The religious man was emphatic that the agents interrupted a “religious act” that is contemplated in the Bible.
Mexican arrested in raid on Los Angeles church
In the video taken by witnesses, the agents are seen entering the church parking lot chasing the Mexican Carlos Cháveza member of the community who was detained and deported to his country over the weekend.
KTLA spinning hard: “ICE storms church grounds to snag Carlos Chavez-Guzman!”
Reality: This Mexican illegal was deported in 2016, re-entered (straight felony), and got detained outside.
Church invasion? Total fiction. pic.twitter.com/Y6cIgTOTDz
— JB Slear (@JB_Slear) February 3, 2026
The agents with their faces covered and heavily armed They blocked access to the parking lot with their vehicles, forcing many of the members to remain sheltered in the church for hours.
“Imagine being a child and seeing your mother scared, crying and wondering what is happening, and having to be locked in a small room for hours,” Pastor Aguilón said.
Guillermo Torres, director of immigration policies at Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice (CLUE), a religious organization that led the “rapid response” strategy, said the incident is yet another demonstration of “the cruelty” of ICE and the lack of respect for the church.
“What they have done is illegal,” said Torres.
ICE raids on churches
This is not the first time that religious have denounced that immigration operations have reached churches. Last year, ICE agents entered the headquarters of a Christian church without permission.
In contrast, the Department of Justice (DOJ) charged at least four people, including the journalist Don Lemonformer CNN anchor, for covering a protest in which a group of protesters interrupted a religious service at a church to demonstrate against their pastor, who also works for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
Activists have pointed out “the double standards” of the White House on the issue.
“It made us question what point our country has reached and think that we cannot be safe even in our churches,” Aguilón pointed out. And he added that churches must continue to be a “sanctuary.”
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has not commented on the complaint.
READ: ICE will allow its agents to arrest people without a warrant
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