Satirical holiday displays mocking Donald Trump’s aggressive immigration crackdown, portraying the newborn Jesus and his parents, Mary and Joseph, as victims of heavy-handed tactics by the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency (ICE), have appeared across the US.

One striking retelling of the Christmas story, at Lake Street church in the Chicago suburb of Evanston, features baby Jesus lying in a manger in the snow – but wrapped in the kind of thin, foil blankets given out in emergencies and regularly as bedding to ICE detainees, and with his wrists zip-tied.

The figure of Mary stands nearby just outside the church, wearing a gas mask, which anti-ICE protesters have been wearing to protect against teargas. She is flanked by figures of Roman soldiers, which the Bible depicts as having detained Jesus prior to his execution, but with those in the display now dressed in tactical vests labeled “ICE.”

A doll representing the baby Jesus is zip-tied in the nativity scene outside of Lake Street church in Evanston, Illinois, on 10 December. Photograph: Erin Hooley/AP

At another location in Chicago, Urban Village church, the models of Jesus, Mary and Joseph are nowhere to be seen alongside the camels, donkeys, shepherds and wise men bearing gifts in the traditional nativity scene. Instead, there is a sign that reads: “Due to ICE activity in our community the Holy Family is in hiding.”

The displays are extensions of the prominent role taken in recent protests against the aggressive federal immigration enforcement by faith leaders, especially in Chicago and New York.

Similar political statements are also being made at churches in other states. At St Susanna parish in Dedham, Massachusetts, the tiny figure of Christ was removed from its nativity scene. In its place is a hand-painted sign reading: “ICE was here.”

The Catholic church stood defiant despite complaints from leadership of the local archdiocese and of ICE, local media reported.

According to some people behind the displays, portraying the ancient story of Christ’s birth in a contemporary political frame helps bring attention to the Trump administration’s agenda. They say that the holy family’s status as refugees represents the real fears and experiences of families in their communities, including separation from loved ones and the deportation of working family members leading to a loss of income.

Two visitors look at a nativity display, which features an ‘ICE was here’ sign in the spot for the baby Jesus outside St Susanna church in Dedham, Massachusetts, on 9 December. Photograph: Charles Krupa/AP

Christmas is a time “when we have public art out on the lawn and we get an opportunity to say something”, Michael Woolf, senior minister at Lake Street, said. He said the Baptist congregation created another nativity scene in a previous year showing Jesus lying in rubble. It was, he said, a “plea for peace” in Gaza.

During the first Trump administration in 2018, parishioners at St Susanna erected a display with baby Jesus constrained in a cage, replicating the president’s policy at the time of separating migrant families and locking up children at the US-Mexico border.

Another year, they depicted Jesus’s body floating in water polluted with plastic in a protest to highlight the climate crisis.

St Susanna is part of a multi-church refugee support committee that has worked with refugee families since 2019, helping many find housing, enroll in school, learn English and secure work.

Meanwhile, back at Evanston’s United Methodist church, the figure of Joseph blew down in a storm and was too damaged to be put back up. A sign reads: “Joseph didn’t make it. We hold this space to honor and remember all the victims of immigration enforcement terror.”

The church’s associate minister, Jillian Westerfield, said critics either don’t fully understand the message or “find it really challenging to their conscience and are lashing out at the art rather than engaging with what the actual message is”.

*Associated Press contributed *reporting