Pastor Detained by ICE During Holy Week, Denied Bible for Days

As Holy Week begins, a New Jersey minister sits in an immigration detention center, his daughters are struggling at home, and his church is left asking how this could happen to a man who has spent his life serving others.

Yeison Cortes Vasquez, 46, is a pastor at The Gathering Place Church in New Jersey. Born in Colombia, he has lived in the United States for over a decade, building a life rooted in faith, family, and service. On March 20, while working a delivery route in Newark, ICE agents stopped him. He has been held at Delaney Hall Detention Center ever since. His family maintains he has an active asylum case. He has no criminal record — not so much as an arrest.

At home, Cortes Vasquez's wife and three daughters are carrying a weight no family should have to bear alone. "His daughters are shaken up," said Rev. Dr. Gabriel Salguero, President of the National Latino Evangelical Coalition. "One of them doesn't want to eat. She's losing her appetite."

Inside the detention center, Cortes Vasquez has continued doing what pastors do — ministering to those around him, offering what comfort he can to fellow detainees. But for nearly a week, he did it without a Bible. When church leaders attempted to deliver one to him, they were denied. He eventually was permitted to purchase one through the facility's internal purchasing system.

"To know that he was denied access to a Bible for nearly a week, especially as we enter Holy Week, is deeply painful and troubling for our entire church family," said Reverend Enid Almanzar, Chairwoman of the National Latino Evangelical Coalition. "We are holding fast to our faith while calling for compassion, dignity, and the protection of our most fundamental freedoms for citizens and immigrants alike — especially our right to worship without government interference."

"Pastor Yeison has walked with our people through their hardest moments — praying with families, lifting up the broken, and pointing us to Christ," said Rev. Almanzar.

"The moral decline of beginning to detain ministers during Holy Week is heartbreaking," said Rev. Dr. Salguero.

The National Latino Evangelical Coalition will hold a press conference Thursday outside the Newark detention facility, calling for Cortes Vasquez's release. For the Christian community, the call is the same one it has always been — to speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, and to love their neighbors as themselves.