Immigrants seek divine protection in ICE raids era
Add Axios as your preferred source to
see more of our stories on Google.
Illustration: Allie Carl/Axios
Immigrants are turning to traditional Catholic and unofficial folk saints for protection and courage in a political climate of mass deportations where they often feel hopeless.
Why it matters: The spiritual panic blended with cultural revival comes as the immigration crackdown continues with no end in sight — despite consistent legal challenges and declining public support for the harsh tactics.
- Figures like St. Jude and Santa Muerte have popped up at protests and on car dashboards as the Trump administration orders aggressive ICE raids and tightens legal immigration channels.
- "When folks feel like they have no other recourse but the divine, or the supernatural, these types of saints become really important," Andrew Chesnut, the Bishop Walter F. Sullivan chairman in Catholic Studies at Virginia Commonwealth University, tells Axios.
Zoom in: At migrant shelters and Latino parishes, images of saints known to help migrants and travelers have spread in recent months.
- St. Jude, an official Catholic Saint of Lost Causes, has been seen at demonstrations and outside immigration detention facilities.
- Mother Cabrini, patron saint of immigrants, has appeared at protests and candlelight vigils near federal immigration courts.
- Our Lady of Guadalupe, the Mother of the Americas, can be found at rapid-response networks, emergency community meetings and roadside altars built after immigration sweeps.
- Santo Toribio Romo, widely known as "el Padre Pollero" (the Holy Coyote) and as the unofficial patron saint of migrants and border crossers, has shown up in wallets and on necklaces.
The intrigue: Some immigrants are even embracing folk saints unsanctioned by the Catholic Church and often associated with drug cartels.
- La Santa Muerte, or Holy Death, a skeleton figure resembling the Grim Reaper, has appeared on dashboards, on candles, and on murals to protect immigrants from arrest.
- "One of her main hats is protectress of migrants. A great majority of devotees aren't narcos — they're people in desperate situations," Chesnut said.
- Jesús Malverde, sometimes referred to as the "angel of the poor" and strongly identified with the Sinaloa Cartel, has morphed into another figure to help poor migrants.
State of play: The rising, very public devotion to saints comes as the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has increasingly pushed back against the Trump administration's aggressive immigration enforcement.
- In November, the bishops overwhelmingly voted on a rare "Special Pastoral Message" condemning the indiscriminate mass deportation of immigrants and calling for humane policy rooted in human dignity.
Between the lines: The saints' stories — of exile, danger, persecution and perseverance — mirror the lived experiences of migrant families facing raids, family separations and deportation orders.
- In this climate, saints function as emotional lifelines, letting migrants reclaim a semblance of security when the government's actions feel unpredictable and punitive, Chesnut said.
- Devotion has become both a private survival strategy and an element of public cultural resilience, especially in communities where trust in institutions has collapsed, he added.
The bottom line: Growing opposition to Trump's immigration crackdown doesn't appear to be affecting the administration's policies, and immigration reform proposals in Congress aren't going anywhere.
- "If you come to our country and break our laws, we will find you, arrest you, and deport you," DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a press release last week.
