Nativity scene displays Jesus as detained migrant
A group of Milwaukee activists set up a Nativity scene surrounded by fencing Friday to connect the story of Jesus’ birth with the plight of immigrants.
Organizers from the Latino and faith communities staged the scene at the monthly Milwaukee Southside Taco Truck Rally near Velobahn Coffee & Cycle — a coffee and bike maintenance shop in Milwaukee’s Menomonee Valley.
Julio Guerrero, of MKE Taco Truck Advocates, hosts the rallies and often organizes a political issue for attendees to engage with. This month, with so much news about detention centers for undocumented immigrants at the U.S. southern border, Guerrero wanted to bring attention to the issue.
And as the Trump administration faces criticism for the conditions at the detention centers, the president on Friday visited Wisconsin. The timing makes the Nativity display doubly meaningful, Guerrero said.
“It’s a message to send that this is an indictment on his leadership,” Guerrero said of Trump.
Just as Jesus, Mary and Joseph were fleeing persecution, so too are migrants, Guerrero and other organizers of the Nativity scene said.
In the display, the figurines are wearing metallic emergency blankets to be reminiscent of the detained migrants, who also have been given the blankets. Toilet paper rolls, diapers and water bottles are positioned outside the fencing, recalling reports that migrant children are not being provided toiletries such as soap or toothbrushes.
“If (Jesus, Mary and Joseph) were in that same situation but trying to find refuge in the U.S. today, they would likely have been detained, put in cages, separated and suffered in a tremendous way,” said Jonah Overton, a pastor at the Milwaukee-based church Zao MKE.
Members of the church, along with members of All Peoples Church, handed out stickers that read “Abolish ICE” as well as information about the connections between Jesus and immigrants.
“There is absolutely nothing Christian about the way the Trump administration is treating immigrants and refugees,” Overton said.
Guerrero knows some people may find the display shocking or offensive, but “what’s shocking and offensive is actually how people are being treated every day near the border,” he said.