Brookfield Church Vandalized with 'Abolish ICE' Graffiti

BROOKFIELD, CT — Vandals scrawled "Abolish ICE" on the side of St. Joseph's church over the weekend.

The Roman Catholic church, at 163 Whisconier Road, was first made aware of the graffiti when police knocked on their door at 6 a.m. Sunday morning, according to St. Joe's Deacon Peter Kuhn.

"It's one of those things that you think will never happen here," the deacon said. "But it did."

Workers have placed a tarp over the graffiti to conceal it, as it represented "a billboard that we did not need," Kuhn said.

The Trump administration had warned that an accelerated effort to deport undocumented immigrants with final deportation orders would be made this past weekend by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) division of Homeland Security. The "Abolish ICE" movement began as Twitter hashtag in 2017, according to The Hill, and grew in popularity when it was made the central plank in the platform of New York Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's successful election in 2018.

The church is seeking a contractor who can remove the vandalism "as soon as possible."