Anti-ICE Nativities Take a Stand Against Trump’s Cruelty
Despite pushback from right-wing leaders, nativity scenes with a humanitarian message are spreading across the country.
This past Friday, December 5, the Archdiocese of Boston asked St. Susanna Parish in Dedham, Massachusetts, to remove its nativity scene. The crèche features the shepherds and the Wise Men, but no Holy Family — no Jesus, Mary, or Joseph. In their place is a sign that reads: “ICE WAS HERE.”
A text below includes the number for the LUCE defense hotline, run by the Immigrant Justice Network of Massachusetts, which monitors and confirms Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) activity.
The nativity scene remains on view pending review by the Archdiocese, local media reported. League C.J. Doyle, the Archdiocese spokesperson and executive director of the Massachusetts Catholic Action League, said in a statement last week that “the Church’s norms prohibit the use of sacred objects for any purpose other than the devotion of God’s people.”
“The people of God have the right to expect that, when they come to church, they will encounter genuine opportunities for prayer and Catholic worship — not divisive political messaging,” the statement said.
Trump-appointed Acting Director of ICE Todd Lyons similarly denounced the scene as “abhorrent,” calling St. Susanna Parish's pastor an “activist reverend.”
But as the Trump administration continues its violent deportation campaign, anti-ICE nativity scenes are spreading. In Chicago, the Urban Village Church’s nativity features a sign that reads, “Due to ICE activity in our community, the Holy Family is in hiding.”
Another Nativity scene featuring a zip-tied baby Jesus and Mary and Joseph wearing gas masks at the Lake Street Church of Evanston went viral. The Holy Family is surrounded by Roman centurions whose armor is accented with black full-face masks, sunglasses, and vests bearing the word ICE.
Lake Street Church Senior Minister Reverend Michael Woolf told Hyperallergic that he hoped the nativity would encourage people to reflect on scripture “in their present context.”
"In the original gospel story, Herod is the bad guy, right? What we have in this country right now is Herod sort of running things,” Woolf said. “The original story is about people forcibly going into exile and becoming refugees. It's about political violence. It's about authoritarianism. All that's already in the Gospel.”
Woolf has been a strong advocate for Chicago's immigrant community.
"Churches have very few opportunities to do public art. A lot of our art is behind closed doors, but a lot of that takes place where people can't see,” he continued.
The nativity, Woolf added, "is a powerful opportunity for churches to make clear their values.”
“This story is already anti-authoritarian. It doesn't need to be updated in any way. It just needs people to point out the anti-authoritarian edge that's already present,” he said.
Indeed, Lake Street Church references a long history of nativities as protest art, and aims to correct the right-wing discourse claiming that anti-ICE nativity art is politicizing the holiday.
In fact, last December, the late Pope Francis visited the Nativity of Bethlehem 2024, where Jesus was swaddled in a keffiyeh, a symbol of Palestinian solidarity. Jesus’s keffiyeh swaddle disappeared shortly after images of the Pope visiting the nativity went viral online.
In December 2019, during Trump’s first presidency, Claremont United Methodist Church in California unveiled a nativity showing Jesus, Mary, and Joseph separated and in cages. “For us, this is a public nativity that you might call public art,” Reverend Karen Ristine told Hyperallergic at the time. “The role of public art is to raise awareness.”
Despite the condemnation of anti-ICE nativities, primarily by right-wing leaders, the campaign against Trump’s cruel immigration policies has seen support from the Catholic Church. Last month, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops issued a statement opposing “the indiscriminate mass deportation of people,” said the head of the Catholic Church, Pope Leo XIV, criticized the “extremely disrespectful” treatment of immigrants in the United States.
