“It’s completely unforeseen, completely shocking, and outrageous that he would be detained,” said Will Lambek, an organizer with the Vermont advocacy group Migrant Justice.
ICE did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Seven Days first reported his detention.
Tendo, 41, has become a prominent community organizer in Vermont since relocating to the state in 2021.
An ordained Pentecostal minister, he has said that he faced political persecution and torture in Uganda after his charity, Eternal Life Organization International Ministries, criticized the Ugandan government. He has said that forces aligned with the authoritarian Museveni regime cut off two of his fingers, and that his brother and uncle were killed due to their political activities.
“The missing fingers on my left hand are a constant reminder of this brutality,” he wrote in a testimonial for his employer, the University of Vermont Medical Center.
A federal immigration judge denied Tendo’s asylum application in 2019. He spent two years in an immigration detention center in Texas — and later sued the Department of Homeland Security over his treatment there. Investigators for the department’s Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties have acknowledged wrongdoing.
Tendo has garnered support from prominent politicians. In 2020, US Representative Jim McGovern, a Massachusetts Democrat, wrote a letter signed by 44 members of Congress urging the federal government to release him.
In a written statement Wednesday, all three members of Vermont’s congressional delegation said they were “horrified” to learn of Tendo’s detention and called on the Trump administration to return him to Vermont and ensure due process.
“People like Pastor Tendo are exactly who our asylum system is meant to protect,” wrote Senators Bernie Sanders and Peter Welch and Representative Becca Balint.
Since relocating to Vermont, Tendo has appeared at an ICE facility in St. Albans for regularly scheduled check-ins — often accompanied by crowds of supporters. At one such check-in last July, he told the Globe he felt particularly nervous “because the agency we are dealing with is unpredictable.”
“The wave of fear, the kidnappings that have been happening, really, really make it very hard, even though you know you’re not a criminal,” he said.
Tendo had been scheduled for another check-in this Friday, according to his attorney, Brett Stokes. He had recently filed motions to reopen his asylum case, citing worsening conditions in Uganda, and for a new stay of removal.
Melissa Battah, executive director of Vermont Interfaith Action, said supporters had planned to accompany Tendo to Friday’s check-in. She called ICE “cowards” for detaining him in advance.
“Why send agents out and terrorize a community? To do what? To flex muscles? To show force?” she said. “This is not what a government should be doing to its people — to people they’re entrusted to serve and protect and take care of.”
Jacob Berkowitz, president of the UVMMC Support Staff United labor union, said Tendo had been working as a licensed nursing assistant while attending nursing school and moonlighting at the Shelburne facility.
“He’s the type of person we want around. He’s the type of guy we should have in this country,” Berkowitz said. “If only we all were in service to community, as Steven is, our country would be in a better place.”
Paul Heintz can be reached at paul.heintz@globe.com. Follow him on X @paulheintz.
