Oklahoma pastor deported to Mexico after decades of ministry

Pastor Wulfrano Portillo, a longtime church leader in Tulsa, Oklahoma, has been deported to Mexico after immigration authorities detained him during a scheduled check-in in Oklahoma City, separating him from his family and congregation after decades in the United States.

Portillo, who leads La Hermosa Church in Tulsa and was subject to a 2007 removal order, was taken into custody March 10 during a regular immigration appointment, News On 6 reported last week.

His daughter, Tania Portillo, said he had been reporting to immigration officials for years while waiting on pending applications and that the family had long feared he might be detained at one of those visits.

She said her father had lived in the United States since he was 16 and had built his life in Oklahoma, where he served for decades as a pastor. She also said he had a valid work permit and a Social Security card at the time of his detention, though he remained subject to a removal order.

The order dated to 2007, after her parents were detained following a car accident. She said an immigration judge ordered them to leave the country after that incident and that they spent years trying to remain in the United States.

She said her father is now alone in a city he has never been to, without money and without anyone nearby who can reach him quickly after his removal.

“He has been trying to do everything the correct way, fighting to stay in this country, and yet that has not been good enough," Portillo told 2 News Oklahoma on Saturday. "Most of his life he's lived it here, so he was sent to a country he doesn't know anymore."

His absence was felt immediately at La Hermosa Church, where the congregation gathered for Sunday services without him that weekend.

Pastors in Mexico reportedly contacted Portillo to offer support as he searched for a place to stay.

The case in Oklahoma comes alongside other recent deportations of pastors and immigrants with long ties to the United States.

Last April, Maurilio Ambrocio, a pastor who led Iglesia de Santidad Vida Nueva, a 50-member Hispanic church in Wimauma, Florida, was deported to Guatemala after more than two decades in the country.

Ambrocio, 42, had been arrested during a check-in at a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement office in Tampa in mid-April. He entered the country illegally but had been allowed to remain under a stay of removal. The conditions included annual meetings with federal agents and avoiding any crimes.

That month, a coalition of Christian groups, including the National Association of Evangelicals and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Department of Refugee and Migration Services, estimated that Christians make up about 80% of the 10 million immigrants living in the United States without legal status who could face deportation. 

The White House pushed federal agents at the time to arrest up to 3,000 people per day, a pace that would amount to more than 1 million arrests in a year.