DHS is using the Bible to promote ICE, claiming 'righteous' fight against immigrants

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.

Religion & Politics

Photos of the Week: Arbaeen pilgrims, Assumption of Mary

People gather outside the Kiruna Church, a Sami style wooden Swedish Lutheran church, called Kiruna Kyrka in Swedish, in Kiruna, Sweden, tesday, Aug. 19, 2025, during its move along a 3-mile route east to a new city center as part of the town's relocation. (AP Photo/Malin Haarala)

In Opinion

And finally, New PBS documentary explores love and loss in Islamic stories

In May of 2022, in the middle of her master’s degree at Harvard Divinity School, Ariella Gayotto Hohl lost her father to cancer. Five thousand miles away from her home in Brazil, she never knew how sick he was or got to say goodbye.

Overwhelmed by grief and feeling that her Muslim faith had been shaken, Gayotto Hohl met the team members at Unity Productions Foundation shortly after her father’s death and found that they were exploring some of the same questions about Islam and loss. By the beginning of 2023, she was working with them to film a documentary about five stories of love in Islam.

In “Islam’s Greatest Stories of Love,” Gayotto Hohl speaks with experts and travels to new locations to better understand the wisdom in five stories of various types of love: star-crossed lovers Layla and Majnun; Shah Jahan and his love for Mumtaz preserved in the Taj Mahal; the Prophet Muhammad and his first wife, Khadija; Malcolm X and his half-sister Ella; and the profoundly spiritual friendship between Rumi and Shams.

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