A Texas couple used their holiday decorations to show their frustration with President Donald Trump’s immigration policies, placing the baby Jesus — manger and all — inside a cage labeled “ICE.”
A stern-looking Mary and Joseph stood to one side of the cage, and on the other was a scroll printed with the poem that is also etched at the base of the Statue of Liberty, “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free …”
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Kate Naranjo explained the unorthodox display to Austin’s FOX 7, saying, “Each year, we try to bring a little levity but also some seriousness to the holiday season.”
Naranjo indicated that the display had been inspired by the now-canceled “zero-tolerance” policy that led to families being separated by border patrol agents as those who crossed the border illegally went through processing. (RELATED: Trump Signs Executive Action To Stop Family Separation)
“We are making a statement because during this holiday season no matter what country you live in, no matter what your ethnicity is you should be with your family at this time and unfortunately our country in recent history has decided to separate families,” she said.
“If you know your history and you know the story of the nativity scene, then you don’t see this as political because this is a reflection of Jesus’s story,” Naranjo continued. “He was a refugee.”
According to the Christmas story in the Bible, however, Jesus was born in Bethlehem — a city in his homeland of Judea, which was, at the time, under the rule of the Romans. And even when his terrified parents fled with him, they traveled to Egypt — which was also subject to Roman rule. Their journey would thus be more akin to a family fleeing from one state to another than from one country to another, and there is no evidence that would suggest it was illegal for Mary and Joseph to do so.