'The law must be executed': On slave catchers, ICE, and the missing moral voice

The past few weeks have made me question if there is anything that can push conservative White Christians out of their complacency within the MAGA movement and with President Donald Trump. 

The president has made a fool of our faith, using a whitewashed version of Christianity as moral coverage for his immoral actions. Last year, 32 people were killed in ICE custody, the highest number since 2004. In the early days of 2026, ICE shot and killed Renée Good, an unarmed observer. Trump, seemingly forgetting that he is the leader of the free world, immediately blamed Good, supported lies about the situation, and has not allowed state investigators to do their job. 

Renée Good deserved better. So did Samuel DuBose.

Robert Alan Glover recounts a grisly police shooting that rocked Ohio 10 years before the killing of Good by an ICE agent in Minneapolis.

Black Catholic MessengerGuest Writer

Many have called out the injustice in the murder of Good, including the notable podcaster Joe Rogan. He compared the actions of ICE to those of the Gestapo, the Nazi secret police under Hitler. Though the comparisons are strong, the more accurate historical comparison is perhaps in our own American history, with slave catchers. 

After the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 was passed by Congress and signed into law by President Millard Fillmore, slave catchers grew into an institutionalized role to kidnap runaway African Americans and bring them back to their so-called masters. There, the newly re-enslaved faced punishment, torture, and potentially death for absconding. Formerly, enforcers of slave-catching had been private parties, such as the slaveholder, but after enactment of the new federal law, U.S. Marshals were granted legal authority to detain runaways. 

These Marshals had support of the federal government—including President Franklin Pierce during the Burns affair, in which they arrested Rev. Anthony Burns, a formerly enslaved African-American preacher in Boston, and faced fierce public opposition. In a telegram to the Marshals, Pierce declared: “Your conduct is approved. The law must be executed.”

The law sanctioning agents to capture and strip African Americans of their freedom was supported and enforced by the federal government, a parallel so easily seen today with ICE. These federal agents are seeking out and detaining migrants—and others, including U.S. citizens—with little to no due process, deporting many to countries they’ve never been to. They do this all while using excessive force, and even killing Americans like Good.

ICE agents are the enforcers of the rampant dehumanization of migrants, which Trump and his MAGA movement strive for. Migrants themselves are fearing for their lives, as ICE, encouraged by Trump, are no longer held to due process or the broader rule of law. Instead, they are governed only by their allegiance to the president and his cronies.

Meanwhile, you would expect prominent Catholic influencers to show preferential treatment to the poor and oppressed and, you know, do their job of leading the Church toward the values she espouses. Instead, what do we have? For the most part, radio silence. The same figures can find time to share an advertisement for TruthlyAI, or to gush about the so-called “Charlie Kirk effect” on politics and faith. 

But little to no outrage over ICE surveilling a Catholic church to deport an immigrant. No outrage over ICE shooting and killing an American Christian mother. No outrage over the terrorizing of Black and brown bodies under Trump. No outrage at the Catholic vice president's constant and dull butchering of Church teachings (because, well, at least he’s anti-woke.) No outrage even over the sad reality that war is “back in vogue,” especially as the United States continues its imperialist legacy in Latin America and now in Greenland.

So what should happen? First, let’s stop beating around the bush. Trump and his administration have encouraged a rabid racism and xenophobia in our day and age. Why can’t Catholic bishops, priests, and laypeople be blunt about that? It seems that some Catholic leaders in America can see the effect of Trump, with the U.S. bishops releasing a special statement against his immigration policies. But is that it? Can Catholics not directly call out the man who is our President who is directing all these injustices? White Catholics and other Christians seem to be extremely pointed when talking about abortion, but when it comes to Black and brown bodies and ICE, there seems to be no similar moral vision.

Moreover, there seems to be a sinister urge to equate “both sides” on the chaos Trump has caused. Take for example the words of Bishop Robert Barron of Winona-Rochester: 

“My heart is breaking over the situation in my home state. Violence, retribution, threats, protests, deep suspicion of one another, political unrest, fear—all of it swirling around all the time. May I make a modest proposal for exiting this unbearable state of affairs? The Trump Administration and ICE should limit themselves, at least for the time being, to rounding up undocumented people who have committed serious crimes. Political leaders should stop stirring up resentment against officers who are endeavoring to enforce the laws of the country. And protestors should cease interfering with the work of ICE. And everyone on all sides must stop shouting at one another and demonizing their opponents. Where we are now is untenable. There is a way out.” 

You would think that after his sweeping response to the opening ceremony back during the 2024 Paris Olympics that Barron would have a more forceful rejoinder to what is going on in his own state. Instead, he practically ignores the goings-on of the past year. We’ve seen time and time again that the Trump administration and ICE have no limits. I highly doubt that Jonathan Ross—the ICE agent who called Renée Good a “fucking bitch” after shooting her to death—was just trying to do his job. 

The Trump administration is posting videos of immigrants getting deported to the soundtrack of Sabrina Carpenter songs. This immoral and inhumane gloating is a feature of the MAGA movement, and a reflection of the growing Christian nationalism to which many or most White American evangelicals have already succumbed. This is not business as usual, or just a Republican vs. Democrat issue. We have people, children of Almighty God, genuinely fearing for their lives at the hands of those Bishop Barron and others would like us to normalize.

Our nation long ago experienced the horrors of the federal government tracking and trapping humans who were simply in search of freedom and a better life. Given this history, we should pull back the veil to see our modern-day slave catchers for what they truly are. After all, in order to be an instrument of peace you must first acknowledge the violence that is happening. 

I recommend that we ask for the intercession of Venerable Augustus Tolton, who escaped slavery and made it to freedom, to guide our American Church towards true justice.

Tulio Huggins is a campus minister at Dartmouth College, where he graduated from in 2023. His hobbies include writing, baking bread, and playing rugby. You can follow him on Instagram at @tulioisreading.

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