A federal immigration enforcement agent sprays Rev. David Black, of the First Presbyterian Church of Chicago, as he and other protesters demonstrate outside an ICE facility in Broadview, Ill, Sept. 19, 2025.
(Credit: Ashlee Rezin/Chicago Sun-Times via AP)
By Ryan Foley - Posted at The Christian Post:
Published November 3, 2025
Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Mike Johnson has defended federal immigration enforcement against allegations of hostility toward religious leaders protesting the Trump administration's deportation push.At a press conference on Wednesday, Johnson responded to a question from Religion News Service asking him to weigh in on video footage showing federal immigration law enforcement "shooting Christian clergy with pepper bullets, pepper rounds and rubber bullets."
Specific examples cited included videos documenting one minister "being hit in the head with pepper rounds" and a United Church of Christ minister "shot directly in the face with a pepper round." Johnson was asked if he shared "the concern of this clergy that this is a religious freedom issue."
"I can't comment on any of those instances. I haven't seen or heard any of those videos," Johnson replied. "Religious freedom does not extend and give you the right to get in the face of an ICE officer and assault them, if indeed that was what happened there."Johnson defended federal law enforcement's response to the protests against the Trump administration's immigration policies as "measured," adding "ICE officers, by the way, are under tremendous strain and pressure."
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