Using the Christmas Story to Demonize ICE Agents

American  Thinker 

A recent survey of American Christian clergy found that a surprising percentage are Democrats compared to laity populations that are much more Republican. This ideological distortion is consistent with larger national patterns that imply the moral superiority of leaving the Republican party with a higher education -- including a theological regimen of study. A popular elite narrative during the Christmas season is for churches to set up nativity scenesaiming at demonizing ICE agents and the larger political agenda of immigration enforcement.

Immigration Customs and Enforcement is an important component of law enforcement in the United States. This agency disrupts a range of violent global agendas including drug and human trafficking. Both criminal agendas are worth billions of dollars to international cartels. These agendas kill hundreds of thousands of Americans and enslave tens of thousands of peoplein the form of human trafficking. Since 2020, nearly half a million Americans have died from drug overdoses. In 2025, increased anti-drug enforcement has reduced the death toll by more than 25%. Saving tens of thousands of lives through law enforcement would, in a life-loving polity, be a point of celebration and not demonization. Despite the abhorrent nature of human slavery, the American elites lament that ‘there are not enough people being paid low wages in the U.S. to perform tasks such as crop gathering and building construction.’ Even though Americans -- and especially Republicans -- sacrificed tens of thousands of lives trying to stop human slavery, the rhetorical demonization of ICE is increasingly popular. In the popular telling of our elite, ICE agents are cruel, heartless figures who want to violently attack innocent children and women. These narratives ignore and refuse to acknowledge the victims of criminal aliens within the United States. An illegal immigration wave that brought millions of largely unknown individuals into the United States is refigured as unassailable Christian charity and compassion.

The demonization of law enforcement by our Jacobin elite is not a new rhetorical theme. But the amplification by church leadership is somewhat novel. Putting baby Jesus in zip ties places the Christmas story as a polemic against the Trump administration and its immigration law enforcement. Here in Dallas and elsewhere, individuals have been motivated by these narratives to attempt to kill ICE agents. Despite the virtues signaled by many Christian pastors across the United States, the demonization of law enforcement is not consistent with the teaching and praxis of Jesus. In fact, Mary and Joseph conformed to difficult imperial mandates compelling them to move and register in the hometown of Joseph. Herod is the dark evil figure of the Christmas story, and the elite theology of American Jacobins cast ICE agents as his evil enforcers. But Jesus did not demonize the Roman soldiers that dominated the legal landscape of Judea. In fact, an arguable cause to his ultimate demise was to publicly praise a Roman soldier as having “the greatest faith in all of Israel.” This certainly did not sit well rhetorically with an elite itching to throw off the Roman Empire. Paul in the book of Romans told Christians, many of whom were compelled to perform as human fodder in stadiums -- that all governance is installed by God. Paul urged Christians to accept the authority of the state as a necessary vehicle for the larger cause of God’s justice. As Jesus was brutalized by Roman soldiers who whipped him, mocked him and crucified him, he did not return the brutality with criticism or rejection. The harsh terms of criticism wielded by Jesus were reserved for those elites who made a habit of publicly posing as self-righteous. When Jesus’ disciples raised a sword to cut off the ear of elite law enforcement, Jesus rebuked them, healed the victim and told all his disciples that his kingdom would not come by a sword.

In the same way that they rallied the public toward violence against police in the summer of 2020, our elites seek to rally the public toward violence against ICE officers. This is plainly unethical and in contradiction to the kingdom Jesus came to announce. It is possible to be compassionate toward both immigrants and ICE agents. These Christian churches turning nativity scenes into polemics against ICE know better and they know that Jesus is not the height of their affections. It is also rhetorically fascinating that these churches are not challenged as “Christian nationalists.” Their intertwined political and partisan convictions mixed with Christianity are welcomed by a stalwart set of journalists and academic arbiters into the American public sphere.

Christmas and its incredibly compelling story about the birth of Jesus should lead us all into the rhetorical posture of the wise men from the East. They had to exercise the rhetorical discernment to understand the political winds blowing in the foreign land of Judea. They recognized that Herod did not truly want to worship Jesus. They did not lead an overthrow of Herod. They directed their minds to a celebration of the truth and not a self-absorbed view of their own power. All of us can learn again from that timeless story as we watch Jesus in zip ties and shepherds dressed up as ICE agents to provoke us to grab another political sword. We are called by our intellectual culture to violently attack ICE agents. That is not the path to Jesus’ kingdom.