ICE Agents Violently Detain Pastor on Christmas Eve

Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers celebrated the birth of Jesus Christ by aggressively detaining a pastor.

Multiple agents in tactical gear can be seen in a video arguing with a man in his car on a video taken on Christmas Eve in Lewiston, Maine.

“Are you a U.S. citizen?” one of the agents asks the man.

The man, who appears to be of Black African origin, tries to reply. “When you came—”

“Stop talking!” the officer yells back.

“You asked me my ID and I showed you ID, I’m not this one you are looking for, so how so?” the man responded.

“Are you in this country illegally?”

“No, I’m not illegally here,” he responded, while the person filming vouched for him. That wasn’t enough for the agents, as they dragged the man out of his car and onto the ground, cuffing him.

“He’s a pastor, he’s a pastor!” the bystander protests. “You’re beating a pastor!”

“Not in this state,” one of the agents replied while leading the man away.

While the Trump administration claims to care about the plight of Christians, ICE has had a particular disdain for clergymen. In September, they shot Chicago Reverend David Black, the senior pastor at First Presbyterian Church of Chicago, with a pepper ball right in the face while he was protesting at the Broadview ICE facility. And in August, Black pastor and Maine resident Michel Tshimankinda spent two weeks in jail after being detained by ICE. He was later released and returned to his congregation. But for ICE to do this on Christmas Eve—especially as part of an administration that postures as godly—is particularly cruel.