Most of you who claim to be Christians while supporting the Trump administration’s cruel immigration policies seem immovable in your position. Here’s a recent true story I challenge you to read and tell us if you support this.
The story is verified by multiple news outlets and has been fact-checked by ChatGPT. It is not “fake news.” The Trump administration does not deny the basic outline of the story, only contesting that the food served detainees is, in fact, rancid, despite multiple confirmed reports that this is a real problem.
Mark Wingfield
If you claim to follow Jesus, who fed the 5,000 and declared himself “the Bread of Life,” how can you reconcile this cruelty with the teachings of Jesus?
Edin Daniel Chinchilla-Roque is being held at Moshannon Valley Processing Center in Clearfield County, Pa., a former federal prison now run for profit by the GEO Group.
His immigration status is conflicted and complicated. In 2023, a judge ruled he is protected under the United Nations Convention Against Torture from being deported back to his home country of Honduras. Still, ICE wants to deport him to a country other than Honduras. The Trump administration has aggressively expanded third-country deportations.
He is one of tens of thousands of immigrants caught up in the Trump administration’s campaign to meet self-imposed quotas for deportations. He also is one of many reporting horrific conditions in the detention facilities where they are being held — often without due process.
On March 3, Chinchilla-Roque wrote a letter to officials claiming the food at the detention facility was rancid and contained worms or insects. He also wrote about inadequate medical and dental care and shortages of toilet paper and soap.
Immigration lawyer Craig Shagin told news outlets Chinchilla-Roque is suffering from constant diarrhea and vomiting and has lost 50 pounds over the past 10 months while in detention.
“Our government chooses to punish them like extreme criminals for seeking refuge in our country.”
GEO Group leaders accused Chinchilla-Roque of inciting a rebellion in the prison and sent him to solitary confinement for seven days.
Let’s pause here and remind ourselves neither Chinchilla-Roque nor most of the others held in immigration detention have committed violent crimes. These are not ax murderers or child predators. Our government chooses to punish them like extreme criminals for seeking refuge in our country.
Now, I know some of you reading this believe immigrants are by default criminals and should be locked up. We can disagree on that and still agree they are humans deserving of decency. The position expressed clearly by the president and his allies is that immigrants are “vermin” not worthy of respect. That alone should give us pause.
Those are not the words of Jesus and should not be the words of anyone who claims to follow Jesus.
Hundreds of detainees — both before and during the second Trump administration — have complained of rotten food. Thus Chinchilla-Roque’s complaint is not unbelievable, which also ought to concern us greatly.
Most of us — and most of Congress — are turning deaf ears and blind eyes to the pleas of immigrants held in cruel U.S. detention facilities. They are out of sight and out of mind to us. But like character after character in the Bible, they are not out of sight to God.
Anyone who claims to follow the way of Jesus should be shocked and outraged at how fellow children of God are being treated by our government. There is no context in which this is acceptable.
Once again, we the people have the power to change this if we listen to the cries of the persecuted and decide to stand up for them. There’s a whole lot of gospel in doing so and not any gospel at all in remaining silent.
If you’re looking for just one issue to raise a ruckus about, this is a good one.
Mark Wingfield serves as executive director and publisher of Baptist News Global and is author of Honestly: Telling the Truth about the Bible and Ourselves.
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