We think of Christmas as a family time, when we can see the family we haven’t seen all year long, even at Thanksgiving. For many families, however, loved ones, most of whom have been here for years, some DACA, others with now lapsed TPS status, and believe it or not, people who have been petitioned by their US citizen spouses and have gone to USCIS interviews to obtain final legal status, are now detained.
In many cases, they have been deported without even the semblance of due process, sometimes leaving children without parents. Others have been moved from detention centers close to their community multiple times and end up somewhere in Montana or Texas where they face “removal,” as it’s called in the statute, like so much garbage.
The government through an act of sophistry maintains that people who entered the United States through the border have no right to bond hearings, because immigration courts have no jurisdiction to issue bonds, but then the courts have the jurisdiction to order removal. Sounds like a Catch-22 to me.
Prayer for the Day
Lord, even as the glow of Christmas is still with us,
We call to you for there is much despair among us;
Lord, we hear children crying for their parents,
But feel helpless in these times to comfort them.
Lord, restore in us care for our communities,
So often built by immigrant sweat and tears.
In the name of the One who is our strength,
Even Christ Jesus our Lord, Amen.
Thoughts for the Day
The Trump administration is seeking contractors to help it overhaul the United States’ immigrant detention system in a plan that includes renovating industrial warehouses to hold more than 80,000 immigrant detainees at a time, according to a draft solicitation reviewed by The Washington Post.
Douglas MacMillian/Jonathan O’Connell, in The Washington Post (12/24/2025)
We need to get better at treating this like a business. The goal is to deport immigrants efficiently as Amazon moves packages: Like Prime, but with human beings.
Todd M. Lyons ICE Acting Director
See, O Lord, how distressed I am, my stomach churns,
My heart is wrung within me, for I have been very rebellious
In the street the sword bereaves; in the house it is like death.
Lamentations of Jeremiah 1: 20