Detained pastor couple had religious worker visas, Assemblies of God leaders say

(RNS) — An Assemblies of God pastor has said he and his wife, also a pastor, were “pressured” with prolonged separation from their U.S. citizen children if they did not sign voluntary departure papers after immigration authorities detained them.

During a press conference Friday (July 24), hosted by leaders from the Assemblies of God and the Latino Christian National Network, Nepthali Zozaya Saucedo said he and his wife, who came to the U.S. legally, were repeatedly pressured to sign voluntary departure papers but that they had refused.

“They spoke with us about separation — to be separated from our children and even as married people,” Zozaya, 36, said in Spanish, speaking on the phone from detention at U.S. Border Patrol Central Processing Center in McAllen, Texas. “They spoke about how much time that we could end up spending here.”

At the press conference, Sandy Ovalle, a board member of the Latino Christian National Network, said Zozaya and his wife, Cinthia Sarai Cardona Otero, 34, have valid R-1 religious worker visas.

A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson disputed the faith leaders’ version of events in a statement to RNS on Saturday (July 25), calling each pastor “an illegal alien.” The spokesperson wrote, using the couple’s second last names, “Otero and Saucedo entered the U.S. on visas on February 27, 2022 and overstayed for four years after their visas expired on July 7, 2022.”

Sarai Martinez Luna, senior pastor at Comunidad Cristiana Emanuel in Edinburg, Texas, where Zozaya and Cardona are assistant pastors, emphasized how traumatic the detentions had been for the family and the church at the Friday press conference.

“I think it’s very cruel that somebody that had no status for deportation be pressured to sign a volunteer deportation based on the separation of their children,” Martinez said during the press call, adding that the pastor couple had told her of the threats to separate them from their children and to put the children in foster care.

The team supporting Zozaya and Cardona, including Ovalle, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on DHS’ claims that the pastors overstayed their visa.

According to Zozaya during the Friday press conference, he and Cardona, parents of a 7-year-old and twins who are nearly 3, were detained early Thursday as they boarded their flight on the way to a marriage retreat in North Carolina led by the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association.

“We are hoping to get released as soon as possible and be reunited with our family,” Zozaya said in English. “We got here legally, and it has been always our goal to do the right things, and we’ve been doing it.”

The DHS spokesperson’s statement contradicted Zozaya’s timeline, writing that Cardona was detained on Thursday, while Zozaya was detained on Friday. The DHS spokesperson did not directly address the allegations that their agents threatened the pastor couple with separation from their children if they did not voluntarily deport.

“They will remain in ICE custody pending removal proceedings. All of their claims will be heard by a Justice Department immigration judge and they will receive full due process. This administration will not ignore the rule of law,” wrote the spokesperson. 

The statement also encouraged immigrants without legal status to self-deport using the CBP Home app. “The United States is offering illegal aliens $2,600 and a free flight to self-deport now,” the DHS spokesperson wrote. Multiple news stories have reported cases of immigrants who have used processes for voluntary departure either not receiving flights or promised payments.

Ovalle said Zozaya had served Comunidad Cristiana Emanuel for more than a decade and that his wife, Cardona, also preaches. According to Ovalle, while the couple currently hold religious worker visas, they are waiting for their applications for lawful permanent residency, also known as green card status, to be adjudicated.

“We are calling for their immediate release, the protection of their due process rights, and an urgent oversight into ICE’s conduct,” Ovalle said. “No one should be pressured to give up their rights under the threat of losing their children.”

Last October, the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois filed suit against the DHS, claiming DHS officers have a “policy and practice of threatening and coercing detainees to sign forms consenting to their being sent out of the country without appearing before an immigration judge and otherwise waiving their legal rights.” A judge later ordered DHS to ensure agents were not misrepresenting the contents of any papers they provided to detainees and to ensure detainees had a reasonable amount of time to read and understand the papers.

Martinez said she recruited Zozaya to pastor at her Edinburg, Texas, church because she was familiar with his work in Mexico. “He was a youth leader in our organization, the Assemblies of God,” she said. “And we needed help with the young people.”

During the call, Zozaya said he and his wife have loved their work at Comunidad Cristiana Emanuel.

“We’ve been serving with passion, and we love the families that are not only here in the valley of Texas, but in the past couple of years, God has given us opportunity to serve different states,” Zozaya said.

Abel Saucedo, Zozaya’s uncle, also appeared at the press conference and was visibly choked up as he spoke of the couple’s detention. “Nepthali and Sarai have distinguished themselves by living a responsible life, distant from vices. It’s very difficult to find young people these days who dedicate their lives to doing good,” he said in Spanish.

“What I admire in them is that they have worked to take advantage of those opportunities, not just for personal benefit, but to serve and help others,” Saucedo said.

At the press conference, Superintendent Edward de la Rosa, who leads the Texas Gulf Hispanic District of the Assemblies of God, praised Zozaya and Cardona’s ministry. “We need these kind of people here in our Rio Grande Valley. We need these kind of ministers. These are the people that we need to keep, and we need them desperately because they are essential to the growth, to the benefit, to the health of our churches, of our families, of our ministerial families,” he said.

When asked if he wanted to say anything to Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, who is a member of the Assembles of God, de la Rosa said, “Please, somebody be a voice and stand up for the ones who are really trying to make our society 100% better. Can we please ask him to speak on our behalf — to speak on Nepthali’s behalf, Sarai’s behalf?”

This story has been updated to add comment from the Department of Homeland Security and to correct that Zozaya said that he and his wife were detained upon boarding, not exiting, their flight.