Immaculate Conception Church in Durham, North Carolina, Sees Sparse Attendance After Immigration Raids

Immaculate Conception Catholic Church in Durham, North Carolina, which draws a large number of Latino congregants, saw sparse attendance at its Spanish Mass and weekly prayer events after immigration raids in the Triangle in mid-November. Marcial Sánchez, who has attended the downtown parish since 1994, pointed out empty pews at the 1:30 p.m. Spanish Mass. He said a weekly Saturday prayer that usually draws a couple hundred people was also sparsely attended.

Speaking in Spanish, Sánchez said, “What’s happening is very sad, because to me, these men are violating constitutional laws. They’re supposed to take people with orders of deportation, felons, but they’re stopping and questioning people with brown skin who they run into.” He said he is a citizen but must carry his passport to avoid problems. “I know they’re violating people’s rights,” he added.

Sánchez’s children were born in the United States, and he said he respects that one of them voted for President Donald Trump last year. He said, however, that he never expected the president’s immigration crackdown to be like this.

The Department of Homeland Security says officers made more than 370 immigration arrests in North Carolina in two weeks after targeting the state for enforcement. Images of federal agents pursuing immigrants have shaken many in the community and pushed others into the streets to protest. Others view the arrests as proof the crackdown is working.

Friar Gonzalo Torres, who is originally from Colombia, addressed the situation at the parish’s English Mass on Tuesday. “Every nation has the right to protect its borders,” Torres said. “By the same time, because we are Christians, we have the obligation and our kinship as Christians, and that’s something that is not happening.”

Friar Manuel Viera, born in Cuba, is the lead pastor of Immaculate Conception. In a letter to the church this week, he released immigrant families from their obligation to attend Mass if they were fearful of immigration officers, a pastoral response to families who feel unsafe going out (Psalm 82:3). He said their absence is not a failure but a burden the church carries together.

“We have to be alert. We have to keep our eyes open, we have to take care of ourselves,” Viera said in Spanish. “But without fear, and with hope, the hope that comes from Jesus who heals, the hope that comes with the Jesus among ourselves.”

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