Nativity scenes across the United States have been altered to criticise Donald Trump’s aggressive immigration enforcement, with displays depicting baby Jesus zip-tied and Mary wearing a gas mask. At Lake Street Church in Evanston, Illinois, the infant Jesus lies in a manger wrapped in a foil emergency blanket, his wrists bound, while Mary stands nearby in a gas mask flanked by Roman soldiers wearing tactical vests labelled ‘ICE’.
At Urban Village Church in Chicago, the Holy Family is absent from the traditional nativity scene, replaced by a sign reading: ‘Due to ICE activity in our community the Holy Family is in hiding.’ In Dedham, Massachusetts, St Susanna Parish removed the baby Jesus figure entirely, leaving a hand-painted sign that says: ‘ICE was here.’ The Catholic church faced complaints from the local archdiocese and ICE but stood defiant.
These displays continue a tradition of political expression at the churches. In 2018, St Susanna showed baby Jesus in a cage to protest family separation at the US-Mexico border. Another year, the figure floated in plastic-polluted water to highlight the climate crisis. Lake Street Church previously depicted Jesus in rubble as a plea for peace in Gaza.
Michael Woolf, senior minister at Lake Street, said Christmas is a time ‘when we have public art out on the lawn and we get an opportunity to say something.’ At the Evanston church, Joseph’s figure blew down in a storm and was replaced with a sign honoring ‘all the victims of immigration enforcement terror.’ Associate minister Jillian Westerfield said critics either misunderstand the message or ‘find it really challenging to their conscience and are lashing out at the art.’
