(RNS) — In a video posted to its X account July 28, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security warned “EVERY CRIMINAL ILLEGAL ALIEN IN AMERICA” that the U.S. Border Patrol’s special operations group was coming to hunt them down.
The video, using an intimidating tone typical of DHS promotional videos on immigration enforcement, also quoted an unexpected religious reference — the Bible.
The 40-second clip shows Border Patrol agents in tactical gear seemingly preparing for an operation as a verse from the Book of Proverbs fades into the screen. “The wicked flee when no man pursueth; but the righteous are bold as a lion,” reads the text, attributed to Proverbs 28:1. The soundtrack features the opening monologue of “The Batman” movie (2022), with actor Robert Pattinson declaring, “They think I’m hiding in the shadow, but I am the shadow,” a nod at immigration agents’ readiness for their mission.
The video received 37,000 likes and had been shared about 9,000 times as of Tuesday (Aug. 19) but irked some X users who were surprised to see a religious text quoted in the governmental agency’s communications. It is one of many posts by the agency since June across Instagram, Facebook and X quoting Scripture or invoking religious imagery to promote its efforts to arrest and deport immigrants.
The agency’s apparent turn to Scripture comes as it seeks to recruit U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement employees, whose agents are pivotal in the Trump administration’s forceful immigration crackdown. The ads connect the agency’s mission to arrest and remove immigrants with a divinely ordained mission.
The agency’s framing of Scripture encapsulates how some Trump administration leaders embrace Christian nationalism, said Guthrie Graves-Fitzsimmons, vice president of programs and strategy at Interfaith Alliance, which promotes religious freedom and democracy.
“I think you see that across the administration, it is not an attempt to reconcile their policies with Christian teaching. It’s just sort of taking a bulldozer to Christian teaching and then sprinkling Bible verses on top,” he said. “We have this really growing sense that the Trump administration is trying to promote Christianity and use Christianity as a defense for its authoritarian actions, and that flies in the face of our religious freedom tradition in the United States.”
Though it invokes the Bible to support its actions, the agency is embattled in multiple lawsuits filed by religious groups, including Christians, over federal agents arresting immigrants on properties used by houses of worship, Graves-Fitzsimmons said. He described what he called the “cognitive dissonance of ICE going into houses of worship to make immigration arrests, while then using the Bible in this inappropriate way to recruit agents and to put a religious facade on the most unreligious of activities.”
Faith groups fighting the administration’s immigration policies also argue their religious values inform their efforts.
