Baby Jesus Zip-Tied by ICE in Nativity Scene

A,Wooden,Christmas,Nativity,Set,With,The,Holy,Family,Gazing

A politically charged Illinois Nativity scene that depicts baby Jesus zip-tied by ICE agents shows just how far some churches will go to push open-borders activism over biblical truth and traditional faith.

Story Snapshot

Lake Street Church in Evanston, Illinois, installed a Nativity scene with baby Jesus zip-tied and surrounded by figures in ICE vests.
The display replaces reverence with political theater, equating federal immigration enforcement with Roman oppression.
Critics argue the church is abusing a sacred story to smear law enforcement and promote a progressive, pro-illegal-immigration agenda.
The controversy highlights the widening divide between activist churches and believers who want Christ, not left-wing politics, at Christmas.

Illinois Nativity Scene Turns the Manger into an Anti-ICE Protest

Lake Street Church of Evanston, a self-described socially engaged congregation just north of Chicago, chose this Advent season to install an outdoor Nativity scene that looks more like a protest art exhibit than a display of worship. Baby Jesus is shown with his hands zip-tied, wrapped in a thin foil-style blanket, and ringed by helmeted “centurions” wearing bright green vests labeled ICE. Nearby, Mary and Joseph initially wore respirator masks, presented as protection against tear gas.

Church leaders explained on Facebook that they intended to “reimagine the Nativity as a scene of forced family separation,” drawing direct parallels between the Holy Family and migrants in modern detention facilities. They explicitly linked the foil blanket to the Mylar sheets seen in detention photos and the zip ties to a reported 2025 ICE raid on a Chicago apartment where children were restrained. In their telling, the Bethlehem stable becomes an indictment of American border enforcement.

From Worship to Woke: How Activist Churches Rewrite the Christmas Story

This is not Lake Street Church’s first attempt to turn the manger into a political billboard. In 2023, the same congregation staged a Nativity showing baby Jesus alone in rubble to reference the war in Gaza, signaling an annual habit of tying the birth of Christ to whatever global crisis fits a progressive narrative. The church grounds reportedly feature Black Lives Matter and other social-justice banners, underscoring a long-standing commitment to activism that sits uneasily with many traditional believers.

Senior minister Rev. Michael Woolf has not confined his politics to the pulpit. Weeks before this year’s Nativity went up, he was arrested alongside other demonstrators at an immigration protest outside an ICE deportation processing facility in Broadview, Illinois. The arrest further cements the display as part of a broader campaign against immigration enforcement, not merely an abstract theological reflection. For many observers, the cumulative message is clear: national borders are suspect, enforcement officers are villains, and the Christmas story exists to serve a modern activist cause.

Backlash from Christians Who See Blasphemy, Not “Powerful Art”

Once national outlets amplified the story, reactions poured in from around the country. Many Christians, including those who might disagree on immigration policy details, recoiled at the sight of the Christ child trussed up like a criminal. Online commenters condemned the display as blasphemous and accused the church of hijacking scripture for partisan gain. They pointed out that Joseph and Mary traveled to Bethlehem because of Caesar’s census decree, not because they were illegal border crossers defying a sovereign nation’s laws.

Supporters, by contrast, praised the installation as “very powerful art” that restores what they call the Nativity’s “radical edge.” For them, presenting Jesus as a helpless detainee under ICE guards is a way to provoke outrage at family separation and detention practices. That framing, however, effectively casts American officers sworn to uphold immigration law in the role of Herod’s henchmen, and it turns reasonable border security into a theological sin. That is a step many law-abiding churchgoers simply will not take.

Why This Culture Clash Matters Beyond One Chicago Suburb

In the days after public criticism mounted, observers noted that Mary’s gas mask was removed and the zip ties on baby Jesus were cut, a quiet softening that suggests church leaders knew how far they had pushed the imagery. Yet the underlying message did not change. The church continues to insist that the Holy Family were refugees and that modern immigration enforcement is an affront to that legacy, language that flattens complex policy issues into simple morality plays with obvious villains and victims.

Illinois church faces criticism for Nativity scene showing baby Jesus zip-tied by ICE agents https://t.co/ZkGV2gIW8V pic.twitter.com/D1kW2vZ3fh

— New York Post (@nypost) December 5, 2025

For conservatives, the episode is another reminder of how deeply identity politics and open-borders rhetoric have penetrated some religious institutions. Instead of teaching personal responsibility, lawful citizenship, and compassion ordered by truth, these churches embrace imagery that portrays America’s attempt to control its border as inherently cruel. As Trump’s administration in Washington moves to restore the rule of law at the southern border and end the excesses of the Biden years, activists in places like Evanston are working just as hard to recast enforcement itself as un-Christian.