What's Happening

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 6, 2026, Adrian, Michigan – On behalf of the Adrian Dominican Sisters and Associates, and in solidarity with the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR) in the United States and the Confederation of Latin American Religious (CLAR), the Adrian Dominican Sisters General Council issued the following statement in response to the U.S. military actions in Venezuela.

The Adrian Dominican Sisters join the U.S. Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR) in standing with all people whose lives are threatened by violence, war, and hatred. Rooted in our faith, we profess our unwavering belief in the dignity, value, and rights of every human person and our commitment to the sacredness of human life.

With deep concern for the people of Venezuela, we stand with LCWR in solidarity with our sisters and brothers of the Confederation of Latin American Religious (CLAR) and with the consistent teaching of the Church in opposing the use of military force as a means of resolving political and democratic crises. Violence and war do not bring peace; they deepen suffering, destabilize nations, and place the most vulnerable at greatest risk.

We affirm the power of dialogue, negotiation, and diplomacy over military action. We call upon the United States Congress to exercise its constitutional and moral responsibility to address any use of force that violates our shared commitment to protect and promote human life and the common good.

We urge the Administration and all members of Congress to cease any military involvement in Venezuela and to support international efforts that foster fair elections, a peaceful transfer of power, and conditions in which democracy can truly flourish. The people of Venezuela deserve the freedom to determine their own future without coercion, violence, or external domination.

We recognize that these same threats endanger other countries throughout Latin America, and we affirm our solidarity with all peoples whose sovereignty, dignity, and democratic aspirations are placed at risk by similar forces.

We also call upon people of faith to commit themselves to prayer for the people of Venezuela and for the discernment of global leaders, that decisions may be guided by wisdom, restraint, respect for human life, and a genuine concern for the common good.

As we are reminded in LCWR’s Response to These Times, this moment calls us to be women who remain informed, who listen deeply to all voices, and who engage in serious and prayerful discernment. We refuse to contribute to hatred, fear, division, or violence. Instead, we claim our moral authority as bearers of love and as people of hope, trusting that faithful action grounded in compassion and courage can shape a future worthy of our shared humanity.

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Members of the Adrian Dominican Sisters General Council are Sisters Elise D. García, OP, Prioress; Frances Nadolny, OP, General Councilor; Lorraine Réaume, OP, Vicaress and General Councilor; and Corinne Sanders, OP, General Councilor.