Arizona Evangelistas Fear Church Raids

The recent deportation of Hispanic Evangelistas detained while on retreat in a state park near Prescott, AZ, has created fear that ICE might take to raiding their chapels and store-fronts. Retreats in the bucolic regions around Sedona, Flagstaff and Prescott had become an important feature of Hispanic Evangelical worship and practice. Now they are afraid to travel there because vans filled with Hispanics create suspicions of sumgglers. But the fear has gone even to anticipating that ICE will set aside its policy of not raiding churches and church related activities. The retreat near Prescott was a church-related event. (See Arizona Republic article.)