House Speaker Mike Johnson dismissed religious freedom concerns on Wednesday (Oct. 29) about clergy protesting mass deportations being shot with pepper rounds and pepper bullets by Department of Homeland Security agents, saying the agents have conducted themselves in a “measured” manner.

“Religious freedom does not extend and give you the right to get in the face of an ICE officer and assault them, if indeed that was what happened there,” said Johnson, a Southern Baptist, in response to a question from Religion News Service. “What I’ve seen is a measured approach by the people who are trying to enforce our border laws, our immigration laws, and that was desperately needed and desired and demanded by the American people.”
In recent incidents at a U.S.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency detention center in Broadview, Illinois, and at a Coast Guard station in Oakland, California, ICE and Border Patrol personnel have been filmed shooting clergy with pepper balls, pepper rounds or rubber bullets, or faith leaders have reported agents doing so.

In a lawsuit filed in Illinois earlier this month against DHS, a group that includes journalists, clergy and demonstrators argue federal agents have violated the religious freedom of faith-based protesters, among other claims. A federal judge quickly sided with the plaintiffs and issued a temporary restraining order on Oct. 9 limiting the agents’ ability to use violence against protesters, including “religious practitioners.” The Rev. David Black, the pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Chicago who was filmed being shot in the head with pepper balls, is a plaintiff in the suit.

The House speaker was asked about one of the incidents in a press conference earlier this month but claimed no knowledge of the incidents when first questioned about them on Wednesday, before outlining his understanding of the religious freedom issues involved. He later added, referring to ICE agents: “Thank the Lord that there are people who are willing to do that difficult job or put on the badge and show that kind of courage. We should be on the side of law enforcement.”