A Pastor in ICE Detention on Good Friday

And they won't even give him a Bible.

It’s Holy Week and ICE is currently detaining a pastor with no criminal record who is legally in the United States seeking asylum.

They have also refused to give him a Bible.

Pastor Cortes Vasquez

Pastor Cortes Vasquez was stopped by ICE agents during his grocery delivery route due to of a vehicle registration issue and was taken into custody.

Pastor Vasquez has been held at Delaney Hall Detention Center since March 20th even though he has no criminal record and has a legal asylum case pending. Delaney has come under fire for its inhumane conditions, medical neglect, food shortages, and abuse. They wouldn’t even allow fellow clergy to bring Pastor Vasquez a Bible—reminiscent of how an ICE facility here in Texas wouldn’t allow me to bring communion to my friend, Miguel.

Pastor Vasquez is spending Holy Week separated from his wife, his three daughters, his church, and his entire community. And he’s not alone. About 75,000 people are currently being held in ICE detention centers across the United States with more being added every day. Like Pastor Vasquez, 3 out of every 4 people currently in ICE detention do not have a criminal record.

A new report from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, the National Association of Evangelicals, and World Relief found that roughly 1 in 12 Christians in America is either at risk of deportation or lives in a household where someone could be.

Reverend Dr. Gabriel Salguero, President of the National Latino Evangelical Coalition, said that Pastor Cortes Vasquez spends his time visiting the sick, leading Bible studies, and serving the local community. “The moral decline of beginning to detain ministers during Holy Week is heartbreaking,” Salguero said.

Today is Good Friday—a day when we remember the state-sanctioned execution of Jesus Christ on a Roman cross. It is a day that forces us to confront what happens when political power, religious fear, and public indifference converge.

Jesus was executed because the Roman Empire believed he posed a threat to their systems built on domination, exclusion, and control. Rather, he was arrested, detained, and put to death while many around him stayed silent or convinced themselves it was justified.

As Barbara Brown Taylor said, “Jesus was not killed by atheism and anarchy. He was brought down by law and order allied with religion—which is always a deadly mix. Beware those who claim to know the mind of God and are prepared to use force, if necessary, to make others conform.”

This story is one we are still living. As a pastor sits in an ICE detention center during Holy Week, separated from his family and denied a Bible, we are faced with the same question that Good Friday has always asked: Where do we stand when the vulnerable are being crushed by unjust systems?

Do we align ourselves with the powers that harm, the crowds that stay silent, or Christ who is found among the detained, the suffering, and the forgotten?

Good Friday is not just about what happened to Jesus. It is about what is still happening all around us. And it’s about how we choose to respond.

Pastor Vasquez’s next hearing is scheduled for April 16th. Please join me in praying and working for him to be set free, for the ICE detention centers to be shut down, and for all of the immigrants living in fear because of this crooked administration to experience peace.

We cannot remain silent in the face of this evil.