Austin, Texas Couple Remembers Refugee Children at Border at Christmas through Nativity Scene

Remembering the children at the border. Photo from Facebook

Christmas 2018

14,000 children are still in custody of federal officials on this Christmas day.

Published December 25, 2018

AUSTIN, Texas — With family and friends gathered at Christmas, it may be easy to forget what is happening in the news. One Austin, Texas couple want people to remember the federal government has been separating refugee children from their parents as they attempted to seek refuge in the United States.

Beginning in April 2018, the Trump administration launched a “zero tolerance” policy on the southwest border. By July, some almost 2,700 children were separated from their parents by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents at the southern border of the United States.

According to TIME magazine, 14,000 are still in custody of federal officials on this Christmas day.

The couple put up a nativity scene that places the baby Jesus behind bars in an ICE detainment cage, separated from Mary and Joseph.

“We are making a statement because during this holiday season no matter what country you live in no matter what your ethnicity is you should be with your family at this time and unfortunately our country in recent history has decided to separate families,” Kate Naranjo commented to a local Austin television station.

“If you know your history and you know the story of the nativity scene then you don’t see this as political because this is a reflection of Jesus’s story he was a refugee,” said Naranjo. “Each year we try to bring a little levity but also some seriousness to the holiday season.”