Phoenix Catholic leaders find strength in La Virgen de Guadalupe amid ICE activity

Thousands filled the streets of downtown Phoenix in December for the 20th annual “Honor Your Mother” event dedicated to the diocesan patroness, Our Lady of Guadalupe, whose image strengthens the faith of devoted followers across borders.

Held in front of St. Mary’s Roman Catholic Basilica at Peace Park on Dec. 6, the Diocese of Phoenix’s annual celebration of the Virgin of Guadalupe brought church members from all over the Valley and beyond to pray, dance and sing in her honor, many expressing gratitude for the comfort they say she offers in times of hardship.

La Virgen de Guadalupe’s motherly love, compassion and protection drew faithful Catholics together in downtown Phoenix, where church leaders emphasized that she is not only a source of hope but a powerful example of how the community should treat immigrants.

“This country used to be a haven for immigrants and migrants and refugees. It was part of who we were. It was part of the U.S. culture. We welcomed the stranger,” said Bishop John P. Dolan of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Phoenix during an interview with CALÓ News.

Dolan echoed this same message in his 2025 pastoral letter, “In Solidarity with the Stranger,” entrusting migrants to the protection of Our Lady of Guadalupe because increased Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operations across the Valley had brought “confusion, fear and heartache” to many communities, he wrote.

After the arrest of 46 people in a targeted operation on Tucson homes and Mexican restaurants the day before the Dec. 6 celebration, fear lingered in Arizona. Despite this, thousands gathered in downtown Phoenix to honor La Guadalupana.

Community carries their faith out into the streets despite fear

“You could feel it in the air — everyone carried a dreaded fear that something was going to happen, but we kept our hearts strong, fortified and at peace with ourselves,” said Jovany Deloya, a dancer with the Chinelos Guadalupanos dance troupe.

Deloya wore a red velvet cape and a sombrero decorated with the image of La Virgen de Guadalupe. The color choice was intentional, he said — a tribute to his late grandmother, Concepción, a devoted follower of Our Lady of Guadalupe, who encouraged him as a child to honor her through dance.

Concepción taught Deloya that the Virgin of Guadalupe is “the mother of all people,” who protects her faithful sons and daughters in moments of adversity with her green mantle adorned with golden stars. Those lessons, he said, are what keep him returning to the procession year after year.

For the last decade, DACA recipient Leslie Cisneros has danced in the annual procession with the “La Estrella” Matachines, a religious and cultural dance group that fuses Indigenous and European elements. Wearing a headband decorated with sequins in the colors of the Mexican flag, surrounding an image of the Virgin of Guadalupe, the Phoenix resident danced through the Monroe and Jefferson streets, showing gratitude for the deity’s blessings.

“I just bought a house and my daughter was accepted to school. She also started talking more and she didn’t used to,” Cisneros said. “[The school] accepted her and they will give her therapy.”

With each step of her dance, Cisneros prayed to Our Lady of Guadalupe for a year full of blessings, carrying on a family tradition from her childhood in Mexico City.

Around her, other participants also brought pieces of home to the procession. With a sombrero wrapped in bright strands of cempasúchil flowers and an image of La Virgen de Guadalupe, Guerrero-born Daniel Bustamante danced with Los Tlacololeros. Inspired by his hometown folk group, their dance represents the strength and courage of campesinos protecting their crops on Tlacol Mountain.

Bustamante first danced in the Phoenix procession in 1990 to honor his hope and faith in La Virgen. Three decades later, this dance has become a legacy he has passed down to his son, William Bustamante Martínez, continuing a tradition even after he migrated north.

Patroness of migrants

Besides offering a space for faith and devotion, the outdoor bilingual mass and downtown Phoenix procession gave migrants relief and peace from the anxieties they endure every day: the threat of being targeted because of their skin color and the risk of being separated from family members due to a lack of documentation, Cisneros said. To her, these fears reflect a lack of compassion toward vulnerable communities as the Trump administration pushes for mass deportations and increases staff for immigration raids.

“This year was tougher because of the things that are happening,” Loyola said. “With the people we have here around us, it makes us feel like nothing will ever stop us in life. At the end of the day, we’re all on a journey and it doesn't end until the person decides it does.”

Appearing as a woman with Indigenous and European features, La Morenita showed compassion to St. Juan Diego by miraculously healing his elderly uncle, comforting his worried heart.

“Juan Diego was on his way to mass and to the catechism class, and that's where Mary saw him along the way, as he was journeying,” Dolan said. “All of these people are journeying in a procession today, but how many people have been journeying as immigrants and migrants and refugees? God bless the refugees and those who are running from their terrible situations.”

That spirit of compassion is what gave rise to the Guadalupe celebration in Phoenix. The event started after the bishops from Mexico and the United States called for comprehensive U.S. immigration reform that upholds human dignity and for Catholics to build a culture of solidarity with migrants in the 2003 pastoral letter“Strangers No Longer: Together on the Journey of Hope.”

Named the “Patroness of the Americas and Refuge of Migrants,” Our Lady of Guadalupe symbolizes unity — a message that the church hopes to pass on through celebrations like this one.