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February 16, 2026, Adrian, Michigan – On behalf of Adrian Dominican Sisters and Associates, the General Council issued a statement decrying the practice of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers capturing and detaining children and calling on the Trump Administration to put an end to this inhumane treatment of the most vulnerable in our society.
As American citizens and women of faith, we are alarmed and deeply distressed by the inhumane capture and detention of more than 3,800 children by our government since the Trump Administration took office last year.
Infants, toddlers, and school-age girls and boys have been and continue to be apprehended from their homes, schools, and neighborhoods by armed and masked ICE agents and then transported to distant warehouse detention centers. The terror and trauma these children are experiencing at the hands of our own government is shocking to the conscience – and an egregious breach of our nation’s legal and moral values of ensuring child protection.
We have one searing image of the trauma that our nation is inflicting daily on hundreds of children. It is of 5-year-old Liam Ramos as he was returning home from his pre-school with a light blue rabbit-eared cap covering his head and a Spiderman backpack. He and his asylum-seeking father were apprehended in Minneapolis last month by ICE agents and transported 1,200 miles away to the Dilley detention center in South Texas. After a public outcry, Liam was released. But, as an immigration law professor at Columbia Law School has said, “There are many, many Liams.”
According to the Marshall Project, a nonpartisan investigative news organization, the detention of children has “skyrocketed, jumping more than sixfold since the start of the second Trump Administration” – with an average of 170 children detained by ICE each day at the Dilley site alone. In mid-January, of the 1,400 people detained at Dilley, 500 were children with 450 parents. News reports describe children receiving little education, poor medical care, moldy food, and foul-tasting water. Children are losing weight, experiencing anxiety and depression, and getting sick, including two with confirmed cases of measles.
Since the Trump Administration took office last year, according to a December 2025 Marshall Project analysis, ICE has swept into detention at least 3,800 children under the age of 18, including 20 infants. More than 1,300 were held longer than the court-ordered limit of 20 days.
In our Judeo-Christian tradition as Catholic Sisters, we follow the Nazarene who said, “Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these” (Matthew 19:14). This cruel hindering of little children by our own government is unconscionable.
We call on President Trump and his Administration to put an end to this inhumane treatment of the most vulnerable in our society – God’s precious little ones.
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Members of the Adrian Dominican Sisters General Council are Sisters Elise D. García, OP, Prioress, and Frances Nadolny, OP, Lorraine Réaume, OP, and Corinne Sanders, OP, General Councilors.
January 27, 2026, Adrian, Michigan – The late Sister Jamie Phelps, OP, longtime theologian, advocate for racial and social equality, and supporter of Black Catholic education, was awarded with a Certificate of Appreciation during the 38th annual Martin Luther King Jr. celebration in Lenawee County, Michigan.
The January 19, 2026, luncheon at the Tobias Center of Adrian College centered on a . theme from a quote by Dr. King: “If I cannot do great things, I can do small things in a great way.”
The Certificate of Appreciation honors Sister Jamie for “leading and performing her faith while being a blessing to others. We have been blessed by her presence while she lived and served in our community, making the dream of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. a reality for those around her.” The certificate, signed by Andre’a Benard, president of the celebration planning committee, also acclaimed Sister Jamie as “one of our giants.”
“We Adrian Dominican Sisters have been deeply blessed by Sister Jamie’s joyful, challenging, and transformative presence among us, calling us always to fully live Gospel imperatives in our Dominican sisterhood,” said Sister Elise D. García, OP, Prioress of the Congregation, in accepting the certificate. “She was a Dominican preacher through and through who played an indelible national leadership role in raising up Black Catholic Studies as an essential field of study for all Catholics. Her love and passion for the common good of all God’s people are an enduring legacy – calling us all to keep carrying on.”
Sister Jamie was born on October 24, 1941, in Mobile, Alabama, and, after her family moved to Chicago, was educated by the Adrian Dominican Sisters in elementary school. “When Jamie professed her first vows as a member of our Congregation, she became the first Black Sister in our Congregation,” Sister Elise said. “We all know too well what our nation was like in the 1960s and the painful struggle for justice and equality that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. led – and that he and so many Black folk gave their lives to attain. Sister Jamie gave her life to that struggle in our nation, religious life, and the U.S. Catholic Church, where she also found prejudice.”
Sister Jamie died on November 22, 2025. More about her life and legacy can be found in the news section of the Adrian Dominican Sisters website.
The Martin Luther King Jr. celebration also included a welcome by Dr. Cheri Betz, President of Siena Heights University; expressions by Angela Sword Heath, Mayor of Adrian; keynote address by Dr. Leland Harper, Associate Professor of Race, Justice, and Equity Studies at Siena Heights University; and presentation of several awards:
Caption for above feature photo: Sister Elise D. García, OP, Prioress of the Adrian Dominican Congregation, accepts the Certificate of Appreciation Award on behalf of the late Sister Jamie Phelps, OP, during the Lenawee County, Michigan, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr Community Celebration on January 19, 2026.