Before tear gas poured through the icy streets of Minneapolis, and before federal agents rappelled from a Black Hawk helicopter onto a Chicago apartment building, there were the summer raids in Los Angeles, an early testing ground of the Trump administration’s mass deportation campaign.
Starting in late May and lasting until late July, masked federal agents swarmed the city of 3.6 million immigrants, carrying out hundreds of raids that operated on what witnesses described as a grab-first-ask-questions-later approach.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement remains active in and around Los Angeles even now. But for immigrant-heavy congregations belonging to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the summer surge resulted in quick and sweeping action — including moving worship services online in some areas.
Evelyn Caceres, an immigrant from El Salvador whose asylum case was recently denied, described meeting with her south-central ward, or congregation, via Zoom for several weeks, helicopters stalking overhead.
“It was very ugly and frustrating,” Caceres, who will soon be returning to her native country to avoid arrest, said in Spanish through a translator.
(Tamarra Kemsley | The Salt Lake Tribune) Evelyn Caceres in her home in south-central Los Angeles. The Salvadoran Latter-day Saint says it was "frustrating" to have to attend church via Zoom during the summer when ICE activity was at its highest.
Through it all, church headquarters in Salt Lake City has remained largely hands off, according to members in the area.
“It’s all been at the ward level, where every bishop has had to choose on his own how to respond,” said Latter-day Saint Ricardo Osorio Reyes, a U.S. citizen and first-generation immigrant, explaining that some of those individuals — lay leaders often with little experience running a congregation — are themselves undocumented.
Escape routes and empty pews
Exactly how many Latter-day Saints in metro Los Angeles lack legal status, no one can say for certain. The church does not track members’ citizenship or immigration status.
(Philip Cheung | The New York Times) Protesters gather in response to the fatal shooting of Renee Good in Los Angeles, Jan. 10, 2026.
But Brittany Romanello, an anthropologist who has studied the Latter-day Saint immigrant population, said these individuals play a meaningful role in congregations across the country.
“A lot of Latter-day Saint communities in the United States are unaware how many undocumented members live among them,” Romanello said, “serving and showing up despite the very tangible dangers they face.”
(Brittany Romanello) Anthropologist Brittany Romanello says many Latter-day Saints are unaware how many undocumented members worship with them.
Bishop Samuel Ortega oversees what he estimates is a majority undocumented ward in east Los Angeles.
A U.S. citizen who joined the church after immigrating from Mexico 40 years ago, Ortega never canceled in-person meetings, instead leaving it up to individuals to decide if they felt safe enough to come.
Even now, many choose to remain home — not without reason.
A year ago, the Trump administration repealed previous guidelines that generally prevented law enforcement officers from entering churches in search of immigrants lacking permanent legal status. A few days after the announcement, the church’s governing First Presidency stated that church buildings “should not be used to help shield individuals from law enforcement.”
“A lot of people are scared,” Ortega lamented. “Sometimes they come to church; sometimes they don’t.”
(Damon Casarez | Special to The Tribune) Most members of Samuel Ortega's congregation are Latino and some lack legal status.
Those who do, he observed, often hurry out the door the moment the final “amen” is uttered.
“It’s been very difficult,” the bishop said in Spanish through a translator, “because many would expect a more clear and secure or safe sanctuary from the church.”
To address these fears, Ortega has, at times, tasked congregants to stand watch during services and alert him and others if any suspicious vehicles approach the church.
Osorio Reyes serves as one such watchman for his largely immigrant ward, going so far as to plan escape routes and contingency plans if ICE ever makes an appearance. His and other wards, he said, also practice “limited entry,” locking down the building during services except for one closely watched entrance.
(Damon Casarez | Special to The Tribune) Latter-day Saint Ricardo Osorio Reyes holds a flag that is half American and half Salvadoran during an “ICE Out” rally and march in downtown Los Angeles, Friday, Jan. 30, 2026.
To date, he is not aware of agents attempting to enter a Latter-day Saint meetinghouse in Los Angeles.
For its part, ICE has said it is heeding mandates from the Trump administration to step up enforcement of the nation’s immigration laws.
“If you break the law, you will face the consequences,” U.S. Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin has said. “Criminal illegal aliens are not welcome in the U.S.”
Beyond the chapel walls
Like other immigrants lacking legal status, undocumented Latter-day Saints face risks beyond church attendance.
Here, too, members said they have tried to offer support.
Wards have held workshops aimed at equipping citizens and noncitizens with information regarding their rights if they encounter ICE or other immigration agents. Those with legal status, meanwhile, have performed grocery runs for those afraid to leave their homes.
“We take each other food and pick up each others’ kids from school, but we do it with great fear,” Ortega said, explaining that, even as a citizen, he fears run-ins with federal agents.
(Damon Casarez | Special to The Tribune) Ricardo Osorio Reyes attends a rally and march in downtown Los Angeles.
Osorio Reyes is assigned to care for — or “minister to,” in Latter-day Saint parlance — seven Latter-day Saint families.
“It is my divine obligation to … be politically aware and pass along information,” he said, “to make sure the people in my ward are informed and safe.”
When he sings and performs mariachi music outside of a detention center, he said he does so as a Latter-day Saint living the principles found in the faith’s foundational scripture, the Book of Mormon. The same is true of the times he attends protests.
Tending to ‘temporal needs’
Top church leaders have never urged members to take to the streets over immigration. They have, however, encouraged offering material support where needed.
In the same 2025 announcement in which church officials discouraged use of its meetinghouses as sanctuary sites, they noted that bishops can use “fast offering [locally generated] funds to provide temporary assistance for essential needs like food, clothing and medical care.”
(Damon Casarez | Special to The Tribune) Osorio Reyes hands out bread, pan dulce and water to protesters. “It is my divine obligation to…be politically aware and pass along information,” he said, “to make sure the people in my ward are informed and safe.”
One stake president (regional leader), Brian Ames of the Los Angeles Stake, reiterated this point in an email sent to members in the area in July, when raids and protests had reached a fever pitch.
“Temporal needs have increased meaningfully in our stake due to the current environment and we ask that if you are in a position to do so, please be generous in your fast offering,” the stake president wrote to members. “... God wants us to be agents to act and not be acted upon. You don’t need to be commanded in all things. You don’t need to be assigned to minister. Pray and ask God how he needs you to consecrate your time, talents, and resources, and then act upon your personal revelation.”
Ortega put it more simply: “The doctrine is very clear. It’s our responsibility to help those in need.”
The taken
To date, Ortega said he was aware of one member of his congregation who, he’s been told, was detained.
“But,” he said, “I haven’t been able to follow up and verify.”
Osorio Reyes said he knows of a Latter-day Saint convert who was detained and later deported when he appeared for his immigration hearing.
“The whole ward fasted for his hearing to go well, and then they didn’t hear from him,” Osorio Reyes said. “Turns out that his family went into hiding because he was taken.”
Ultimately, there is no way of knowing how many Latter-day Saint immigrants have been apprehended by ICE and other federal agents. The longer the Trump administration’s campaign of mass deportation goes on, however, the larger that number will grow.
When asked what church members can do to support those affected, Ortega answered: “Be there with us, spiritually.”
“Legally things will play out at their own pace,” he said. “In the meantime, check in on your neighbors.”
Note to readers • This story is available to Salt Lake Tribune subscribers only. Thank you for supporting local journalism.