U.S. church groups criticize ICE actions

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 17/01/2026 (242 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

I was talking to an American friend who, like me, is appalled by the actions of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents in Minneapolis and other parts of the U.S.

I told her how helpless I feel as a Canadian while watching the U.S. dissolve into fear, uncertainty and mistrust. Apart from not travelling to that country and not buying American products, what can I do?

“You can write,” she said. Sure, I replied, but I didn’t think it was appropriate for me to dump on America; I don’t live there. “Go ahead,” she said. “We are dumping on ourselves.”

With my American friend’s encouragement, I will say something. But not in my words; I’ll let some American Christians do it.

So, what are some American church groups saying about events in the U.S.?

In a speech delivered during a vigil for Renee Good a week ago, Rob Hirschfeld, the bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Manchester, urged clergy in his diocese to get their affairs in order and their wills ready as they prepare to defend immigrants and other vulnerable people.

Noting that martyrs in the past have died for a cause, Hirschfeld said “Now is no longer the time for statements, but for us with our bodies to stand between the powers of this world and the most vulnerable.”

It’s not a new message, he added. But the context is different in the U.S. now. “We’re living in a different era now, and that is opening up our ears and our hearts to this message, which is both ancient and new,” he said.

In Minneapolis, the Rev. Babette Chatman of Calvary Lutheran Church said Christians should respond with a “prophetic word” that challenges those in power — including ICE.

“I think the church is invited into imagining what kind of world we want,” said Chatman. “We want a world where we don’t have to worry about people in brown uniforms with guns and gas spray and masks coming in our yard. We want a world where we don’t have to worry about not having our rights.”

Chatman suggested that by resisting the Trump administration, the church in America could show non-religious people that it is still relevant in the world today. “I believe 2026 is going to be so prophetic that it’s going to make those non-believers believers,” she said.

Meantime, the National Catholic Reporter published an editorial titled “We are in moral exile. We must resist.”

“There are moments in a nation’s life when the future does not arrive as a surprise,” the editorial began. “It announces itself slowly, unmistakably, through patterns we learn to recognize even as we hope we are wrong. When such a moment finally arrives, it feels less like shock than like confirmation: This is where we were headed.”

The place it is headed, the editorial stated, is state-sponsored violence, fear and murder — at home and in other countries, like Venezuela.

“From a Christian perspective, this is the heart of the crisis,” the editorial continued. “The tradition we claim does not begin with the management of fear, but with the protection of human dignity. It does not teach that order justifies violence, or that power is vindicated by its ability to dominate. It teaches that every human life bears an inviolable worth that no authority may suspend for convenience or control.”

Also in that publication, digital editor John Grosso castigated fellow Catholic and Vice-President J.D. Vance for justifying the shooting and blaming Good for her own death.

“As a Catholic, Vance knows better than to peddle this brand of gaslighting and agitation,” Grosso wrote. “Vance knows that, by virtue of her humanity, Good was endowed with inherent dignity, made in the image and likeness of God. Vance knows that only God can take life … Vance knows that lying and killing are sins.”

Vance knows, he stated, but “he doesn’t care. Vance’s twisted and wrongheaded view of Christianity has been repudiated by two popes. His Catholicism seems to be little more than a political prop, a tool only for his career ambitions and desire for power.”

Vance’s comments “are a moral stain on the collective witness of our Catholic faith” and “fundamentally incompatible with the Gospel. Our only recourse is to pray for his conversion of heart,” Grosso concluded.

But not all Christian leaders felt that way. In a social media post, evangelical leader Franklin Graham defended ICE.

“The protests we see across the country right now are underpinned by the radical socialist left, whose goal is to make the United States like Venezuela, ultimately destroying the America we know,” he wrote. “Lying, stealing, cheating — nothing is out of bounds in order to grab power. Unfortunately, many people joining these protests have no clue that they are just being used as pawns.”

In a follow-up post, Graham noted “there are many who would like to stir things up — there are even those who would like to destroy this great country. Pray that these efforts would be thwarted and their plans would be brought into confusion. Ask God to use His church to be instruments of peace in this time of great uncertainty.”

Many Canadian Christians would disagree with what Graham said — except the part about the church bringing peace. That, I think, all Christians can pray for.

faith@freepress.mb.ca

The Free Press is committed to covering faith in Manitoba through our Religion in the News project. This reporting continues because readers like you step forward to fund it.

Donate now to support our reporting on religion.
Your donation is eligible for a charitable tax receipt. BECOME A FAITH JOURNALISM SUPPORTER