I thought it was a mistake, an exaggeration, or fictitious complaint from an irate person against the Trump administration’s ICE. I found it hard to believe, an entire apartment building in Chicago, would be raided in the middle of the night. Or that doors would be kicked in, people dragged out of their beds, children left naked in the cold . . . A military style invasion  in an American City.

Yet this immigration raid,  that enlisted some 300 federal officers was indeed true. Flash bangs and torn down doors, apartments ripped apart, papers strewn in hallways, every resident, citizen or not,   detained who lived in that  five-story apartment building.     This is the Department of Homeland Security, in the hands of the Trump administration, running rough shod over rights of both citizens and immigrants. Their stated goal was to find illegal immigrants, and possibly, Venezuelan gang members.  Immigrants who, until a week ago, still had protected status.

In the middle of the night, agents rappelled from helicopters, landing on the rooftop, busting open doors, terrorizing residents, zip tying children and taking them from their parents. It was one more appalling and cruel abuse of power. Another incident of callus indifference to the rights of others. One more act of dehumanizing people with the wrong color of skin, even and including their children.

Watching the rise of injustices around him, in 1934 Germany, Dietrich Bonhoeffer warned, “Christianity stands or falls with its revolutionary protest against violence, arbitrariness and pride of power and with its plea for the weak. Christians are doing too little to make these points clear rather than too much. Christendom adjusts itself far too easily to the worship of power. Christians should give more offense, shock the world far more, than they are doing now. Christian should take a stronger stand in favor of the weak rather than considering first the possible right of the strong.” Sermon on II Corinthians 12:9

Time will tell how many of those arrested that night in Chicago, have ties to drugs or Venezuelan gangs. The Justice Department has been slow in releasing names, or indicating what crimes might have been committed by those who continue to be held. Nor do we know how many detained, had come here, fleeing violence and asking for asylum.

What remains is an administration abusing the rule of law, and proud of it. God, however, is on the side of justice and not terrorizing children, the immigrant or the poor.

“Administer true justice; show mercy and compassion to one another. Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the foreigner or the poor.” Zechariah 7:9–10