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.
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.
The arrests sparked angst in the community and have concerned advocates of Iranian Christians who’ve fled persecution from the Islamic regime.
A religious coalition won the first round of faith-based litigation against the Trump administration — but the scope of the preliminary injunction is limited.
‘We cannot become a government that normalizes cruelty,’ Rep. Jesús G. Garcia, an Illinois Democrat, said while discussing the bill on the House floor.
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.
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.