A few months into Donald Trump’s second term, the president’s administration launched a task force that would, according to the Republican White House, eradicate “anti-Christian bias” within the federal government. At a launch event in April 2025, then-Attorney General Pam Bondi began by attacking Joe Biden, who Bondi said had “abused and targeted Christians.”<\/a><\/p>\n

The slander was baseless. And a year later, when the task force tried to bolster its accusations with a lengthy written report, the allegations against the former president and his Democratic administration largely fell apart<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But more than a year after Team Trump started making a concerted effort to convince Americans that Joe Biden and his White House “abused and targeted Christians,” it’s the incumbent president and his administration that continue to clash with the faith community — up to and including a recent arrest of a nun. MS NOW reported<\/a>:<\/p>\n

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The arrest of a Catholic nun from Nigeria by federal immigration officers in southern Texas [last week] made for an unlikely alliance on Capitol Hill as lawmakers from both parties demanded her release and asked the question: Why aren’t border officials focused on real threats to public safety?<\/p>\n
Sister Leticia “Letty” Ugboaja, 56, was walking the block between her home and the Catholic Church where she attends Sunday Mass in McAllen, Texas, when she was stopped by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. The agents arrested her, taking her rosary, and brought her to a nearby detention facility.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
For all of the president’s<\/a> and Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin’s<\/a> chest-thumping about Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers targeting the “worst of the worst,” Ugboaja is a nun. She was wearing her habit and walking down a public sidewalk en route to Sunday Mass when she was hauled off.<\/p>\n
The idea that she somehow represented a threat to public safety in Texas is plainly insane.<\/p>\n
Fortunately, Ugboaja was ultimately released from federal detention<\/a> after a backlash from members of Congress, but this was hardly a rare clash between the Republican administration and the faith community. In fact, this incident comes on the heels of Team Trump suing a Catholic diocese in New Mexico<\/a> in order to seize 14 acres of land for additional border barriers.<\/p>\n
There have been related controversies surrounding the Pentagon’s list of officially recognized religions<\/a>Trump picking fights<\/a> with Pope Leo XIV, the administration stripping funding<\/a> from Catholic charities, and instances in which federal agents have shot faith leaders with pepper balls<\/a>.<\/p>\n
If these developments unfolded during a Democratic administration, is there any doubt that Republicans and conservative media outlets would launch hysterical campaigns about the “Democratic war on religion”?<\/p>\n
This post updates our related earlier coverage<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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Steve Benen is a producer for “The Rachel Maddow Show,” the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He’s also the bestselling author of “Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans’ War on the Recent Past.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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