“I knew that you are a gracious and merciful God, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from punishment.” (Jonah 4:2)
Since June 6, the Brown and Black residents of Los Angeles, the city I call home, have been the subject of kidnappings and disappearances at the hands of the current administration. My heart breaks on a constant basis as I think of everyone for whom this Advent season will be full of pain and hurt rather than love, peace, and joy.
There have already been at least 28 deaths of people being held in ICE detention this calendar year (compared to 12 all of 2024). At least is in italics because that number is widely considered a gross underestimate, as noted in the invaluable #DetentionKillsSubstack. The victims are not just the individuals taken, but their families and communities who are left to deal with the trauma and upheaval of being targeted on the daily basis. We may never fully grasp the long-term impacts of this administration’s policies in criminalizing “the foreigner in our midst.”
One incident stays on my mind this Advent season. On Aug. 14, ICE conducted a raid at the Monrovia Home Depot, running a fleeing day laborer named Carlos Roberto Montoya Valdez onto the nearby freeway where he was struck and killed by oncoming traffic. I joined other clergy at a vigil later that day in solidarity with the community as it was experiencing simultaneous emotions of both grief and rage. I was torn by the desire to provide spiritual comfort as well as to cry out to God for justice.
The Sunday after the raid, a pastor at my friend’s church preached on Jonah, comparing Jonah’s view of the Ninevites to how we all viewed the ICE agents who murdered Carlos. What option would we choose if placed in Jonah’s place — to lead ICE agents and our government to repentance, or to run away and be swallowed by a fish? I think all of us would have chosen to be swallowed by a fish.
What are we to do with that?
I think we all know what our answer should be, but “they” don’t deserve God’s love! What they deserve is God’s vengeance and justice. This administration through its policies and through their immigration enforcement arms of ICE and CBP are actively targeting and hurting people we love and care about. They don’t deserve God’s love.
But then, isn’t that why we celebrate Christmas? It’s the context in which Jesus was born. The world was in chaos with political instability and human brokenness. So when the angel told the shepherds “I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people” (Luke 2:10), the angel was telling the shepherds (and all of us) that Jesus would somehow, someway, make all things right. And the joy of that promise is what we hold out for during these times.
A Nativity outside Saint Susanna Parish in Dedham, Massachusetts, where the Holy Family was moved to the sanctuary and replaced with a sign declaring, “ICE Was Here.” (Rev. Steve Josoma/Religion News Service)
As Christmas nears, may we continue to not run away from seeing the injustices in our communities, in Washington, D.C., in Gaza and the West Bank, Sudan, Ukraine, or to whomever and wherever else God has forced our gaze. Don’t look away! Continue to show up in support alongside our neighbors and friends. Demand justice and accountability for the crimes being perpetrated.
But hold that in tension with our calling as people of faith, with the joy that we should all be feeling as we anticipate Jesus’s birth and the promise that he is Immanuel (God with us).
This season, may we all continue praying for the time when can proclaim, “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace among whom he favors” (Luke 2:14).
It’s a tough time, friends. Hang in there. God is truly with us.
Rev. Nori Ochi is an ordained minister through the American Baptist Churches USA.
NOTE: This is part of our Unsettling Advent devotionals running Nov. 30-Dec. 24. You can subscribe for free and receive them each morning in your inbox.
A makeshift memorial for Carlos Roberto Montoya Valdez outside a Home Depot in Monrovia, California, near where he died while fleeing ICE agents on Aug. 14, 2025. (Nori Ochi)
