Speaker Johnson Using the Bible as Snake Oil to Justify Crimes and Atrocities Against the People He Claims Are Committing the Crimes and Atrocities

U.S. District Judge Fred Biery included a photograph in his ruling. A five-year-old boy in a bunny hat and Spiderman backpack, surrounded by ICE agents.

Below the image, two words: "Jesus Wept."

That five-year-old is Liam Ramos. Last week in Minnesota, ICE agents detained him as he returned home from preschool. An agent took Liam out of his father's car - still running in the driveway - and used the kindergartener as bait, directing him to knock on his own front door "to see if anyone else was home," according to school officials who arrived at the scene.

Another adult was present and begged to take custody of Liam. Agents refused. They transported the five-year-old to a detention center in Texas.

The family has an active asylum case. They entered at a legal port of entry. There is no deportation order against them. Their attorney says they "did everything they were supposed to" and "are not criminals."

A federal judge disagreed with ICE's assessment that this was lawful. She gave the government three days to release them.

Johnson's Biblical Framework

This week, Speaker Mike Johnson posted a lengthy biblical defense of border enforcement. Civil authorities, he wrote, are specifically charged to do justice, to "bear the sword," and to serve as "the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil" (Romans 13:1-4, KJV).

By Johnson's framework, civil government is ordained by God to "bear the sword" and execute wrath on wrongdoers. Showing mercy is an individual Christian duty - but not a government responsibility.

The logic is elegant: government must enforce law because God commands it. Anyone who objects is resisting God's ordained order.

Johnson says if you do right, you have no fear of civil authorities.

The Reality

Kilmar Abrego Garcia was a legal permanent resident. He followed every rule. He had every right to be in the United States. ICE deported him anyway - to a country where he was tortured.

Liam Ramos is five years old. His family entered legally at a port of entry. They have an active asylum case. They did everything they were supposed to do. ICE used him as bait, then caged him in Texas.

By Johnson's own standard, they did right. They followed the law. They should have no fear of civil authorities.

Instead: A legal resident tortured. A five-year-old in a Texas detention center.

What crime did they commit?

The Lies Are Structural

When questioned about Liam's detention, DHS claimed ICE was conducting a "targeted operation" against the father - whom they called an "illegal alien" despite his active asylum case and legal entry. They claimed the father "fled on foot - abandoning his child."

School officials who arrived at the scene tell a different story: the father's car was still running when both father and son had already been apprehended.

DHS says "ICE did NOT target a child" - while simultaneously defending their decision to transport that child to a Texas detention center.

The lies aren't incidental. They're necessary. Because the truth - that agents used a five-year-old as bait and refused family care to keep him in detention - reveals what this enforcement is actually about.

The Constitutional Violations

Here's what Johnson's biblical snake oil obscures: the government he's sanctifying is systematically violating the law.

The Constitution - built on the premise that rights are endowed by our Creator, not granted by government - protects:

Fourth Amendment: security against unreasonable search and seizure. In January 2026, ICE agents raided homes and brought families out in their underwear at gunpoint with no warrants.

Fifth Amendment: due process before deprivation of life, liberty, or property. Unlawful detention of U.S. citizens.

Sixth Amendment: right to counsel and fair proceeding. Attorneys being physically restricted from seeing clients during raids.

Eighth Amendment: protection from cruel and unusual punishment. Extreme conditions, unsanitary conditions, physical abuse by guards, solitary confinement for prolonged periods.

The enforcement Johnson calls righteous violates every one.

U.S. asylum law (8 U.S.C. § 1158) gives people the right to seek protection. The 1951 Refugee Convention - which the U.S. ratified - prohibits returning people to countries where they face persecution or torture.

Kilmar was tortured after deportation. That's not a violation of policy. It's a violation of international law the United States is bound by treaty to uphold.

So "God's minister" is breaking the law to punish alleged lawbreakers. The biblical authority Johnson cites commands government to uphold justice - he's using it to justify injustice.

The Theological Trap

Johnson can dismiss "basic human rights" as secular liberal concepts. But "God-given rights" uses his own theological language. The Declaration of Independence - the founding document that conservatives revere - declares people are "endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights."

So Johnson's biblical case for government authority now collides with the biblical foundation for rights that government cannot violate. He's using God's authority to violate God-given rights.

By Johnson's own logic:

• Rights come from God (not government)
• Government exists to protect those rights (Romans 13's "do justice")
• Violating God-given rights = defying God's will

But the enforcement he's sanctifying:

• Violates Fourth Amendment protections (God-given right to security)
• Violates Fifth Amendment due process (God-given right to justice)
• Violates Eighth Amendment (God-given protection from cruel punishment)
• Violates habeas corpus (God-given right to challenge detention)

This forces Johnson into an impossible position:

If rights come from God → violating them is defying God

If rights don't come from God → his biblical framework for authority collapses

Either way, he's using biblical snake oil to sanctify what his own theology should condemn.

The Judge's Condemnation

Mike Johnson says the Bible commands government to bear the sword and execute wrath on wrongdoers. That seeking asylum - a legal right under U.S. and international law - somehow justifies using five-year-olds as bait and caging them in Texas detention centers.

A federal judge looked at the same case and reached a different conclusion.

U.S. District Judge Fred Biery ordered Liam and his father released within three days. In his ruling, he included a photograph of the five-year-old in his bunny hat and Spiderman backpack, surrounded by ICE agents.

Then he quoted scripture.

"Jesus said, 'Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.'"

Below that, two words: "Jesus Wept."

It's the shortest verse in the Bible (John 11:35). Jesus weeps at Lazarus's tomb - at suffering and death. The judge is saying: The appropriate response to what you've done to this child is grief, not justification.

It's also a direct rebuke. Johnson uses scripture to sanctify enforcement. The judge uses scripture to condemn it.

The judge didn't stop with theology. He invoked the Declaration of Independence - the founding document that establishes rights as endowed by our Creator, not granted by government.

The Trump administration's actions, Biery wrote, demonstrate "ignorance of an American historical document called the Declaration of Independence." He compared what happened to Liam to the tyranny of King George III - the specific grievances against government overreach that Thomas Jefferson enumerated to justify revolution.

Read that again: A federal judge compared this enforcement to the tyranny the Founders rebelled against.

Johnson cites Romans 13 to sanctify government authority. The judge cites Jesus's words about children to condemn it.

Johnson invokes biblical sphere sovereignty - government's duty is enforcement, not mercy. The judge responds: "Jesus Wept."

Johnson says civil authorities are God's ministers executing wrath on wrongdoers. The judge says the government shows ignorance of God-given rights.

Same Bible. Same founding documents. Opposite conclusions.

Which means Johnson's framework isn't biblical interpretation. It's biblical manipulation in service of something else entirely.

The Quota Revelation

Judge Biery identified it precisely: "The case has its genesis in the ill-conceived and incompetently-implemented government pursuit of daily deportation quotas, apparently even if it requires traumatizing children."

This destroys any remaining "punishing wrongdoers" defense. If the motivation is hitting daily deportation quotas, then:

• Enforcement isn't about justice, it's about metrics
• Individuals aren't assessed for wrongdoing, they're counted toward targets
• Children become collateral damage in quota pursuit

That's not "God's minister executing wrath on evildoers." That's bureaucratic cruelty.

Not justice. Quotas.

Not punishing wrongdoers. Meeting numbers.

Liam Ramos wasn't detained because he committed a crime. His family has an active asylum case. They entered legally. There's no deportation order. They "did everything they were supposed to."

He was detained because ICE needed to hit their daily quota. A five-year-old became a statistic in a spreadsheet.

Who Are the Wrongdoers?

Johnson says government bears the sword to punish wrongdoers. But when a federal judge has to order the government to release a five-year-old from detention - when bearing the sword means using kindergarteners as bait - who exactly is the wrongdoer?

The preschooler whose family followed legal asylum procedures?

Or the agents who lied about "abandonment" to justify caging him?

When a legal permanent resident is tortured after wrongful deportation in violation of the Constitution, international law, and God-given rights - who are the wrongdoers?

The man who sought protection under U.S. law?

Or the officials who violated that law to torture him?

By Johnson's own framework, government exists to punish wrongdoing and protect the innocent. But when federal judges have to order the government to release a five-year-old from detention - when "bearing the sword" means caging kindergarteners - who exactly is being protected? And from what?

Johnson characterizes border crossers as violent criminals causing catastrophe. Meanwhile, the system he defends:

• Tortures legal residents
• Deports U.S. citizens
• Operates detention beyond judicial oversight
• Ignores habeas corpus

The biblical language doesn't just justify the policy. It immunizes it from accountability. Victims become threats. Constitutional violations become righteous acts. Torture becomes God's wrath.

And anyone who questions it is "unfaithful."

When a federal judge has to order the government to release a five-year-old from detention - when that judge quotes the Declaration of Independence and scripture itself to condemn the enforcement Mike Johnson calls biblically mandated - the question answers itself.

The wrongdoers aren't the preschooler in the bunny hat or his father with an active asylum case.

The wrongdoers are the ones using biblical snake oil to sanctify quotas, torture, and the traumatization of children - while accusing their victims of being criminals.

Even Jesus wept.