Pastor Denied a Bible in ICE Detention During Holy Week

Yeison Cortes Vasquez should be preparing Easter sermons. Instead, the 46-year-old Colombian-born pastor has spent the lead-up to Holy Week inside Delaney Hall Detention Center, arrested by ICE agents while completing a grocery delivery shift in Newark on March 20th.

Cortes Vasquez leads The Gathering Place Church in New Jersey, a congregation he has served after more than a decade of building roots in the United States. According to his family, he has an active asylum case pending — and not so much as a single arrest on his record.

Back home, his wife and three daughters are left to navigate an absence that has shaken the entire household. Reverend Dr. Gabriel Salguero, who leads the National Latino Evangelical Coalition, described the toll on the family plainly: one of his daughters has stopped eating.

What made the situation even more striking to fellow faith leaders was what happened — or rather, what didn't happen — inside the facility. For nearly a week, Cortes Vasquez was unable to obtain a Bible. When members of his church attempted to bring one to him, they were turned away. He was eventually able to get a copy only by purchasing it through the detention center's internal system.

Reverend Enid Almanzar, Chairwoman of the National Latino Evangelical Coalition, called it a painful reality to sit with, particularly given the timing. She noted that Cortes Vasquez has continued to minister to fellow detainees even while detained himself — doing the work of a pastor even without the tools of one.

The Coalition announced plans for a press conference outside the Newark facility, calling for his release. For the broader Christian community watching the story unfold, the moment carries a weight that goes beyond one man's case.