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Maryland priest, wife caring for children of single mom detained by immigration officials

February 10, 2026

[Episcopal News Service] A Maryland priest and his wife have assumed care of two children after their mother was detained by immigration officials, according to a story from NBC4 Washington. The Rev. Vidal Rivas is senior priest at St. Matthew’s/San Mateo Episcopal Church in Hyattsville. Last year he and his wife signed documents making them standby guardians for 26 children of people who feared being detained or deported, he said. The children they are caring for are a 4-year-old boy and an 18-month-old girl. Their mother is an asylum-seeker who was detained during an appointment with immigration officials earlier this month, Rivas told the station, speaking in Spanish. The detention was a surprise, Rivas said, because “she was doing things right.” Since then, both children have been struggling. “Truly, the suffering is great,” he said. “You can see the pain in the children – the pain of not having their mother.” The woman hopes she will be released so she can rejoin her children, but if she is deported, she would like Rivas to bring them to her in her home country. In a February 2025 interview with National Public Radio, Rivas said he has urged people to pick only permanent residents or U.S. citizens as guardians. He fears that people in the country through other currently legal means couldn’t stay if the government invalidates those paths. A year ago, he said five to seven families each week were designating guardians for their children. Since he and his wife have been caring for these two children, members of the church have provided “overwhelming support,” Rivas said. And as long as people need to make contingency plans for care of their children, they will be there to help. “It’s truly as if they were your own children,” he said.