(OSV News) -- Amid recent deadly immigration enforcement operations, Catholics in Minneapolis are wrestling with sorrow, anger, fear and faith as they navigate tensions between federal and local authorities, while continuing to serve their communities.
"The challenge ... is that sense of sadness that we're all struggling with at this point deeply," said Father Jim Cassidy, parochial vicar at St. Joan of Arc Parish in Minneapolis.
The priest was one of several faith and community leaders who, along with Minnesota officials, were part of CNN's live Jan. 28 town hall, "State of Emergency: Confronting the Crisis in Minnesota," moderated by journalists Anderson Cooper and Sara Sidner.
The town hall came just days after the deaths of Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti, two U.S. 37-year-old citizens and Minneapolis residents shot and killed by federal agents Jan. 7 and 24 respectively as they protested immigration enforcement actions in that city.
Since its launch in December, the Department of Homeland Security's "Operation Metro Surge" -- part of the Trump administration's crackdown on unauthorized immigration -- has so far seen the arrest of at least 3,000 persons alleged to lack authorized immigration status.
In the wake of widespread outcry over the deaths of Good and Pretti -- including from several U.S. Catholic bishops -- President Donald Trump removed Border Patrol commander Greg Bovino from the Minneapolis operation, returning him to his previous post in California and sending longtime "border czar" Tom Homan in his place.
In a Jan. 29 press conference, Homan -- while providing few details -- said that he sought to work with local officials to create "common sense cooperation that allows us to draw down on the number of people we have here."
But the deaths of two citizens -- along with incidents such as the Jan. 20 afterschool detention of 5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos and his father, who were sent to a family detention facility in Texas -- have wounded the community, said Father Cassidy, who described his parish as "very inclusive and welcoming."
"How do you find hope, and simply being able to walk that walk?" he said during the CNN town hall broadcast, adding that "the biggest thing" is for "people to name that grief.
"It's deep here in the cities. I have never seen it as such," he admitted.
"At the same time," said Father Cassidy, there is "rage."
"So it's that whole combination," he said, noting that he and fellow faith leaders "journey with people in that process."
Father Daniel Griffith, pastor of Minneapolis' Basilica of St. Mary, lamented the death of Pretti in a Jan. 24 statement, saying also that "the Twin Cities community is experiencing indescribable grief and trauma these past many days in the wake of the violent death of Renee Good and the tumult that has followed.
"This continues to be a time of fear and anguish -- including for our immigrant brothers and sisters, many of whom remain at home -- understandably absent from work, school, and church," said Father Griffith.
Some "who are afraid to leave their homes are even here legally," said Father Paul Haverstock, pastor of St. Gabriel the Archangel Parish in Hopkins, a Minneapolis suburb.
Speaking to OSV News Jan. 20, just four days before Pretti's death, Father Haverstock noted he had recently spoken with a family active in parish ministry, who despite their legally compliant immigration status remain fearful.
"She and her husband, who are both Latino, have work permits here; but ICE has camped outside of their apartment building and has been for days," he said. "And they feel unsafe leaving."
In December, Francisco Paredes -- the longtime maintenance contractor at Father Haverstock's parish -- was arrested in the church's parking lot at the start of the workday. Parishioners reported what appeared to be Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents surveilling the church on Epiphany Sunday as well.
Father Haverstock recalled Paredes as "a huge blessing to our parish" who "was here every Sunday in the choir. ... It was really hard to lose him."
Eighty-percent of those targeted in the current administration’s immigration crackdown across the country are Christian, with the largest proportion being Catholic (61%), according to a joint Catholic-Evangelical report published in 2025 by World Relief and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. The report found one in six Catholics (18%) in the U.S. are either vulnerable to deportation or live with someone who is.
Paredes' arrest was "the first kind of shot across the bow for me as the pastor here, being directly impacted" by the immigration enforcement operations, he said.
The priest said he believed that Paredes had a DUI offense from "maybe 2008" on his record, along with twice entering the country illegally, but was "otherwise an upstanding" community member.
"We've been in touch, and he's back in Mexico now, separated from his 18-year-old daughter," said Father Haverstock. "But I know he's a man of faith and that God will take care of him."
The priest added, "There's a sense that even people who have, up until this point, been here with the proper permissions -- all of a sudden, some of the situations are being reversed against them, whether that was a visa that was granted to somebody for political or for other kind of asylum, or somebody who had just been waiting for their properly begun immigration case to be handled. All of a sudden, they're finding they've got to go right now, or they're going to be taken. And so there's just a lot of fear."
Father Haverstock said "it's especially hard to see how it impacts our families, the ones with mom and dad and kids at home."
Catholic volunteer Zuly Duarte-Jaimes -- who along with her husband, a physician, is a naturalized U.S. citizen, having emigrated from Colombia -- told OSV News Jan. 20 that she and her four children carry their passports, which they "always double check" to ensure they have before leaving the house.
"We are afraid," admitted Duarte-Jaimes, who serves as a Spanish-language translator for the Missionaries of Charity religious sisters in Minneapolis.
"I love this country. It's the honor of my lifetime to be an American citizen," she said. "But this kind of law enforcement treatment of other people just breaks my heart."
In her work with the Missionaries of Charity, Duarte-Jaimes said she has witnessed "firsthand the devastation left behind in those households when they take a loved one.
"Families are torn apart overnight, and the kids -- who are most of the time American citizens -- are just afraid, traumatized," she said.
Duarte-Jaimes lamented that fears of immigration enforcement raids rendered many Spanish-speaking immigrants unable to "celebrate the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, Las Posadas (a traditional Nativity reenactment), or even Christmas as a community."
She also recalled a friend, who regularly attends school Masses, now left "crying at home, not being able to share the sacraments" with her children during the liturgies.
In response, she said, "Our school is reforming a carpool group, trying to get the kids to school," even as families "are not able to go grocery shopping or attend Mass."
At the same time, Duarte-Jaimes said she has been "full of hope" over "the generosity of the community."
"It's amazing, the compassion of the people who have reached out to me and asked me how can they help or what can they do, offering money, prayers," she said. "Some people are donating food. Some people are giving rides. Some people are praying. I know a mom who's doing laundry for immigrants, so they don't have to go to the coin laundry."
In a Jan. 20 opinion piece published by the Wall Street Journal, Archbishop Bernard A. Hebda of St. Paul and Minneapolis called for "comprehensive immigration reform now," citing "human cost on all sides." After Pretti's death, he presided over a Jan. 25 Mass at the Cathedral of St. Paul that included prayers for Pretti and those affected by his shooting, where he called for widespread conversion of hearts.
"While we rightly thirst for God's justice and hunger for his peace, this will not be achieved until we are able to rid our hearts of the hatreds and prejudices that prevent us from seeing each other as brothers and sisters created in the image and likeness of God," he also said in a statement released earlier that day. "That is as true for our undocumented neighbors as it is for our elected officials and for the men and women who have the unenviable responsibility of enforcing our laws. They all need our humble prayers."
Across the Twin Cities, Catholic individuals and parishes are helping house-bound immigrants with food, funds and errands, although several clergy members and Catholic leaders declined to speak with OSV News in order to shield immigrants from attention. The Catholic Community Foundation of Minnesota also reactivated a relief fund to help parishes and schools provide charitable assistance.
Operation Metro Surge, which began in December, is the largest immigration enforcement operation ever, according to Trump administration officials. The administration initially tied the effort, in part, to allegations of widespread taxpayer fraud involving naturalized Somali Americans.
In November, as federal immigration efforts were underway in other parts of the country, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops released a statement on immigration that read in part: "Catholic teaching exhorts nations to recognize the fundamental dignity of all persons, including immigrants. We bishops advocate for a meaningful reform of our nation’s immigration laws and procedures. Human dignity and national security are not in conflict. Both are possible if people of good will work together."
"We recognize that nations have a responsibility to regulate their borders and establish a just and orderly immigration system for the sake of the common good," it continued. "Without such processes, immigrants face the risk of trafficking and other forms of exploitation. Safe and legal pathways serve as an antidote to such risks."
Duarte-James admitted she has struggled to understand how some fellow Catholics hold a view of immigrants that is "so different" from the one articulated by the bishops, whose apostolic role is to teach, govern and sanctify the Church.
"It's almost like being out of touch, or sometimes ignorance of what immigrants are," she reflected.
A significant immigration divide exists within the Catholic Church in the U.S. today. According to Pew, eight out of 10 Hispanic Catholics -- a group that has driven 71% of the Church's growth in the U.S. since 1960 -- are either born outside the U.S. (58%) or are the children of an immigrant (22%). Similarly, 92% of Asian Catholics are either immigrants (78%) or are the children of an immigrant (14%). But far fewer white Catholics -- just 15% -- share this immigrant experience: only 6% were born outside the U.S., with another 9% born in the U.S. to at least one immigrant parent.
Meanwhile, Father Haverstock said he personally knows a number of immigration agents, "including some who are good, practicing Catholics."
"As Catholic priests, we find ourselves kind of being 'Dad' for everybody in the family, and it's a big family," he explained.
Father Haverstock said his "impression is that a lot of these hard-working and good federal agents find themselves kind of as pawns in a political battle between federal and state government right now, and I think a lot of them are just trying to do their jobs."
Ultimately, he said, breaking the current cycle of tensions requires a renewal of heart for all.
"First, we pray really hard for a spiritual revival, a reawakening in our country," he said. "And second, we try to be saints ourselves."
Duarte-Jaimes said she finds examples in those steadfastly serving the area's immigrants.
"It's an inspiration to me and a hope, a ray of light to our community," she said.
