Baby Jesus zip-tied by ICE in ‘political’ nativity scene challenges Trump immigration policies

Mother Mary in a gas mask, Baby Jesus zip-tied by ICE agents. A Chicago church’s nativity scene sparks debate by mirroring immigrant detention

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A nativity scene in suburban Chicago features Baby Jesus bound with zip ties and wrapped in an aluminum foil-like blanket. Photo: Facebook/Lake Street Church of Evanston

Published: 9:12pm, 5 Dec 2025

Mother Mary wearing a respirator mask to protect herself from tear gas. Baby Jesus with zip-tied hands, wrapped in a thin blanket that looks like aluminium foil. Masked centurions with sunglasses and green vests labelled “ICE”.

This is how the Lake Street Church of Evanston in suburban Chicago chose to assemble its nativity scene for the Christmas season. The church and its leaders have been vocal critics of the Trump administration’s Operation Midway Blitz and expressed a message with their holiday decorations.

“Enforcement terror does not discriminate by documentation status,” the church wrote on its Facebook page on November 25.

The organiser of the nativity scene, Associate Minister Jillian Westerfield, said that in the months before organising it, she has been reflecting on the impact of Operation Midway Blitz, in which hundreds of immigrants have been detained, the overwhelming majority of whom do not have criminal histories that have a “high public safety risk”.

“For me at least, I have experienced seeing the face of Christ in the people who are suffering,” Westerfield said, pointing to arrests, detainments and altercations in Evanston and Chicago. “We just really saw a parallel between the ICE forces and the centurions.”

This is what the Bible says happened to Jesus, and we use our contemporary imagery to illustrate that

Associate Minister Jillian Westerfield

“Of course it’s political,” but the set is not up for political interpretation, Westerfield said.

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