A minister in New Jersey was detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in Newark just a week before the start of one of the most important Christian periods of the year — Holy Week.
Pastor Yeison Cortes Vasquez, 46, a native of Colombia and a pastor at The Gathering Place, an evangelical church in Elizabeth, was detained by ICE agents on March 20 and told by authorities that he missed a court date.
“There was no pending court date at the time he was detained and no order for removal,” said the Rev. Enid Almanzar, chair of the board of the National Latino Evangelical Coalition. “We looked into it.”…