Whistleblower claims Trump ordered FBI to investigate LA anti-ICE protesters – US politics live as reflected on by Sister Maria Teresa Morales
Here in our dusty desert shelter at Madre de Dios Ministry, night begins not with quiet contemplation. Instead, we wash blistered feet and distribute warm broth. Many families resting on our cots have walked for weeks under an unforgiving sun. They flee extortion and violence in their homelands. Yet, arriving at our door, exhausted and fragile, they quickly discover new threats. The pervasive dread of raids, detention vans, and invisible surveillance replaces old dangers. Consequently, when reports suggest the FBI investigates anti-ICE protesters in Los Angeles, a familiar ache settles over my spirit.
When Power Forgets Its Purpose
Such news confirms what border communities have known for generations. When authority turns inward, it protects hardened systems rather than vulnerable people. The instruments of state power inevitably treat mercy itself as subversion. Dissent becomes criminalized because compassion refuses to look away from institutional cruelty. Therefore, our Catholic moral tradition teaches that governance exists for one primary purpose: promoting the common good and defending human dignity. The state’s authority is not an absolute end. It is not a personal weapon to turn against citizens questioning administrative policy.
When law enforcement agencies target people who lift their voices for immigrant neighbors, the moral order turns upside down. Power forgets its legitimate mandate to uphold justice. Instead, it chooses to silence the prophetic conscience of the community. The Gospel gives us an unequivocal standard for measuring any society’s health. Christ repeatedly instructed us: whatsoever we do unto the least of our brothers and sisters, we do unto Him. Moreover, witnessing people in peaceful assembly, demanding humane treatment for detained mothers and fearful workers, shows the corporal works of mercy alive in civic life.
Standing With the Vulnerable
Those citizens are not enemies of order. They are witnesses standing between vulnerable families and bureaucratic violence. They insist that legal status can never determine a person’s worth before God. I think of the young volunteers who drive carpools of donated medicine to our shelter. Likewise, parish youth spend weekends making sandwiches for families sleeping in transit stations. The prospect that such solidarity might be targeted by federal counter-intelligence apparatuses intends to breed fear and isolation. Intimidation always calculates to make decent people retreat into comfortable indifference. It whispers to them that caring for the stranger is too dangerous or too costly a vocation.
Yet, fear has never had the final word against genuine love. The desert prophets remind us that speaking truth to power is an inescapable duty of faith. In our chapel, we pray daily for our political leaders and for law enforcement officers. We pray their hearts may soften to recognize God’s sacred image in every migrant child. Furthermore, we also pray for holy steadfastness among those who advocate on their behalf. Surveillance and political directives cannot erase the moral command to shelter the weary and stand beside the oppressed. The news about the FBI investigates anti-ICE protesters only strengthens our resolve.
Ultimately, whatever political currents churn through Washington or the courts, our work at this border will remain unchanged. We will continue to clean wounds, hand out clean water, and offer sanctuary to the terrified. We will stand in solidarity with every person in Los Angeles and across this country who risks their own comfort. They insist that human beings are never illegal. They affirm that a nation loses its soul the moment it turns state power against compassion.
Leave a Reply