On Thursday July 31, 2025 two members of my community were kidnapped by ICE immediately after attending their immigration hearings at the courthouse at 26 Federal Plaza in New York City. Both were Episcopalian parishioners from Westchester, N.Y. churches. Both were sent to an ICE facility in Louisiana for detention.
One, Yeonsoo Go, is the 20-year-old the daughter of an Episcopalian minister, a Scarsdale, N.Y. resident, and a student at Purdue University. She was applying for an extension of her student visa.
The other, Elizabeth “Ketty” De Los Santos—seen pictured above— is a 59-year-old grandmother from Peru who applied for asylum after gang members extorted money from her bakery and threatened to kill her. She is a resident of White Plains, N.Y. Right before being kidnapped by ICE, the immigration judge had continued her asylum case until October.
There was an immediate public outcry on behalf of Yeonsoo, a resident of a wealthy Westchester community and a graduate of its high school, an attractive, bright college student at an elite university, and a minister’s daughter. Her local representative of the Westchester County Board of Legislators helped organize a rally on her behalf, and her story was picked up by Rachel Maddow on MSNBC news. As a result, Yeonsoo was released from custody on her own recognizance and reunited with her mother. However, she must wear a wrist bracelet reporting her location to ICE, cannot travel more than 75 miles from her home, and therefore cannot return to college in Indiana this fall where she is majoring in pharmaceutical studies until or unless her case is resolved.
Ketty remains in detention in Louisiana. She has a serious chronic illness which requires daily medication. The Episcopal diocese desperately tried to inform ICE Ketty had been incarcerated without her life-saving medication, but could not get in touch with whoever had her in custody. Ketty is now receiving medical care in a Louisiana hospital as a result of her not receiving her medication.
There was no regional rally for Ketty, and there were no national news stories about her. She is one of many swept up by the new American gestapo in their daily sweeps who goes unnoticed and unreported.
I went to a prayer service for Ketty earlier today at her church, St. Bartholomew’s, in White Plains. I know St. Bart’s Church well because it also hosts a Zen sitting group I attended for 10 years. The bilingual service was attended by several dozen people—members of Ketty’s Latino community, parishioners at St. Bart’s, officials from the Episcopal diocese, ministers from other churches (including Yeonsoo’s in Scarsdale) and six members of my Zen sangha. The service, presided over by St. Bart’s minister, Rev. Gardner, was beautiful and heart-wrenching. The Episcopal Church is paying for all of Yeonsoo and Ketty’s legal fees. Their immigration legal fund is a good place to donate money.
I leave you with these words from Ketty’s prayer service:
God of mercy, hear our prayer.
For Ketty, who is detained far from home, wrap her in your love.
For all who are held in detention centers, set the captives free.
For her family and friends, aching with worry, give them peace beyond understanding.
For the officers and agents, that they may act justly, move them to compassion.
For all who advocate for justice and immigration reform, strengthen their resolve.
For a world where no one is seen as illegal, let justice roll down like waters.
May we all strengthen our resolve and do whatever we can to resist the new American gestapo and its ersatz gulag.