Blessed Are the Pepper-Sprayers?
This issue of A Public Witness explores biblical ‘peacemaker’ rhetoric from the Trump administration and how it wildly misrepresents what Jesus actually taught.
Unsettling Advent 2025, Day 15
To launch our week reflecting on Advent in a time of soldiers in the streets, Rev. Jorge Bautista writes about getting shot in the face with a pepper round by a U.S. immigration agent while at a peaceful prayer vigil in Oakland, California.
At Bay Area Protest, a Second Pastor Is Shot by Federal Agents With a Pepper Round
For the second time in six weeks, a pastor was struck in the head with a pepper round fired by a US immigration agent as faith leaders protested the arrival of more than 100 US Customs and Border Patrol agents.
Pastor Films As Masked Federal Agents Arrest Iranian Christian Asylum-Seekers in LA
The arrests sparked angst in the community and have concerned advocates of Iranian Christians who’ve fled persecution from the Islamic regime.
Judge Freezes ICE Raids at Quaker & Cooperative Baptist Churches
A religious coalition won the first round of faith-based litigation against the Trump administration — but the scope of the preliminary injunction is limited.
Lawmakers, Faith Groups Push Bill To Prevent ICE Raids on Churches, Sensitive Locations
‘We cannot become a government that normalizes cruelty,’ Rep. Jesús G. Garcia, an Illinois Democrat, said while discussing the bill on the House floor.
Challenging ICE’s Chilling Effect
As Trump claims he’s creating a task force to fight ‘anti-Christian bias,’ it is worth examining the various legal challenges that major Christian denominations have filed seeking protection from Trump’s administration.
ICE’s Cold Shoulder to Churches
This issue of A Public Witness seeks sanctuary to understand the history of how ICE interacts with houses of worship and the pushback against Trump’s changes from various Christian groups.