Would ICE Have Deported Jesus at Christmas?

This year, Catholics in Massachusetts are protesting President Donald Trump’s immigration policies by swapping “Away in a Manger” for “Away With the Manger.”

This marks yet another instance of Trump opponents weaponizing the Christmas story to demonize immigration enforcement by claiming Jesus was a refugee and suggesting Immigration and Customs Enforcement would have arrested and deported the Christ child in the manger.

The Catholic priest at St. Susanna Parish in Dedham, Massachusetts, set up a classic nativity scene with shepherds, sheep, wise men, and … a sign reading “ICE was here” in the place where Mary, Joseph, and baby Jesus would normally be. While the Catholic leadership opposed this “divisive political messaging,” the Rev. Stephen Josoma blamed the Trump administration for any division.

Meanwhile, Lake Street Church of Evanston, Illinois, put baby Jesus in zip ties and an emergency blanket, and placed gas masks on the faces of Mary and Joseph. The church said this symbolizes the conditions of ICE detention facilities and the use of tear gas on “peaceful protesters, journalists, and community members advocating for immigration reform.”

“The Holy Family were refugees,” the church posted on Facebook. “By witnessing this familiar story through the reality faced by migrants today, we hope to restore its radical edge, and to ask what it means to celebrate the birth of a refugee child while turning away those who follow in that child’s footsteps.”

Was Jesus a Refugee?

These strained analogies rest on a kernel of truth. According to Matthew 2:13-23, an angel appeared to Joseph, warning him to flee to Egypt because King Herod the Great aimed to kill Jesus. Herod ordered the slaughter of male children in Bethlehem, but Jesus survived in Egypt. God sent another angel to Joseph later, advising him to return to Israel because “those who sought the child’s life are dead.”

Jesus arguably fit the definition of a refugee: someone forced to leave his or her country to escape war or persecution.

However, anyone seeking to tie Jesus’ sojourn in Egypt to the plight of refugees or illegal aliens in America today will at once encounter a plethora of problems.

Herod, the king who sought to kill Jesus, owed his position to the Roman Senate. Jesus fled Roman-ruled Judea to reside in Roman-ruled Egypt, and then returned to Roman-ruled Judea.

Politically, Jesus’ flight to Egypt resembles a conservative family fleeing New York for Florida, or a liberal family moving from Texas to Illinois, more than it does a Somali refugee seeking asylum in the U.S.

Jesus did not immigrate to Egypt and did not seek to become a citizen there.

Furthermore, the Roman Empire at the time did not grant most of the population the right to vote, and it did not award government benefits to Jewish refugees in Egypt.

Modern Western democratic welfare states need to regulate immigration more heavily than ancient empires did, partly because immigrants and refugees often claim benefits from the public purse, and these aliens may also seek to influence politics by voting or other means.

Merely shouting, “Jesus was a refugee!” does nothing to address the serious concerns that illegal immigration poses.

Caring for ‘The Least of These’

Christians should, of course, heed the Matthew 25 parable in which Jesus says God will reward us for helping “the least of these.” We should care for the sick, feed the hungry, and clothe the naked, to the best of our ability.

These commands to love our neighbor do not extend to using the force of the state to redistribute funds, however. Jesus calls on us to love our neighbors, not to bully our neighbors into forking over cash so the government can then serve other neighbors.

Contrary to the suggestion of the Evanston church, Jesus, Mary, and Joseph were not political activists.

Yes, Jesus came to usher in a new kingdom—but when the Jews sought to make him a king, he refused. Jesus did not set himself up as a political leader. Rather, he and his followers urged Jews and Christians to pay their taxes and to submit to the ruling authorities, knowing that the spiritual freedom of the gospel matters far more than any political cause.

Jesus knew of political movements against Roman oppression, and he did not endorse them.

Jesus’ decision not to lead a political rebellion against Rome likely contributed to the Jewish leaders’ scheme to have him executed.

None of this is to say that Christians cannot support political causes, but it does mean that Mary and Joseph likely would not have joined the agitators who seek to block ICE from enforcing immigration law.

Perhaps more importantly, ICE would not have removed Jesus from the manger—any more than it would remove conservative New Yorkers from Florida or liberal Texans from Illinois.

Christmas is about the birth of Jesus, not an excuse to demonize law enforcement. It’s high time for St. Susanna Parish to put the Christ child back in the center of the nativity scene where he belongs.

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