Rep. Eric Swalwell Likens Jesus, Mary, and Joseph to Illegal Migrants on Christmas

Breitbart ^ | 25 Dec 2025 | Olivia Rondeau

[Olog-hai]

Far-left Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) likened Jesus, Mary, and Joseph to illegal migrants in a Christmas Day post depicting a nativity scene being raided by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

“May this be the last Christmas we live this nightmare,” the California congressman wrote on X, along with a photo of spray-painted ICE agents breaking into the Bethlehem stable where Jesus was born. […]

The prevalent left-wing claim that Jesus was a refugee is considered by many Christians to be historically inaccurate. As Breitbart News’s Thomas D. Williams, Ph.D., described, Jesus was born in Joseph’s ancestral hometown of Bethlehem, after which his parents fled with him to Judea when King Herod set out to kill all baby boys. The family temporarily settled in Egypt, which was part of the Roman empire at the time. They returned to their home in Galilee when Herod died, and Jesus spent most of his growing up years there. …

[Right_Wing_Madman]

while Paul was allowed to be beheaded because he was a citizen.

There is no scriptural or historical evidence of Paul's death. We don't know when or how he died.

The book of Acts ends with Paul under house arrest in Rome, awaiting his trial, but there is no description or resolution of his trial in the New Testament. We know Paul returned to Rome in 60 AD and he was under house arrest for two years until 62 AD, but the story ends there.

Theories abound regarding Paul's death, but there is no hard evidence.

1. He was found guilty at his trial and executed.
2. He was acquitted at his trial and continued his ministry in Spain.
3. He died in Rome's great fire in 64 AD.
4. He was executed by Nero (along with Peter) during Nero's campaign against Christians in 64-67 AD.

[Right_Wing_Madman]

Here’s a dilemma that I see if we assume that Jesus, Mary and Joseph were illegal immigrants. We know from scripture that an angel of God gave Joseph instructions to go to Egypt.

Below is a map of the Roman Empire in 6 BC, the best guess we have of Jesus's birthdate. Both Judea and Egypt were part of the Roman Empire. Mary, Joseph, and Jesus were not Roman citizens, but rather Roman subjects. And it was totally normal for citizens and subjects to travel within the Empire's borders. But nobody confused Eric Swalwell as a biblical or historical scholar.

[fidelis]

There is no scriptural or historical evidence of Paul's death. We don't know when or how he died.

There is no scriptural testimony (not every event in the lives of the apostles are recorded there), but we have the early historical testimony of both Eusebius (early 4th century church historian) and Origen (2nd century). There is no refutation of their testimony or no recorded alternate testimony. It isn't an issue that has anything to do with our salvation and there is no reason to doubt it.

[Right_Wing_Madman]

There is no refutation of their testimony or no recorded alternate testimony.

Eusebius and Origen are mostly responsible for theory #4 on my list.

The most obvious refutation of Eusebius and Origen's testimonies is that they are secondary sources who wrote 150 years and 250 years after Paul's house arrest in Rome. Their works are important in that they describe early Church traditions, but they are not eyewitness accounts, nor primary sources.

[fidelis]

The most obvious refutation of Eusebius and Origen's testimonies is that they are secondary sources who wrote 150 years and 250 years after Paul's house arrest in Rome. Their works are important in that they describe early Church traditions, but they are not eyewitness accounts, nor primary sources.

That is not a refutation of these testimonies as many things we know from history are not from direct eyewitness testimony. The only way to truly refute them is to prove the impossibility or at least the extreme unlikeliness of the account, or have more reliable witnesses than these two credibly refute it. It is unlikely that these two made up such a thing out of whole cloth or uncritically accepted every story that they heard, and it is more likely they were relying on testimony earlier than their own.

[Right_Wing_Madman]

it is more likely they were relying on testimony earlier than their own.

There is also Clement, an early bishop in the church, who wrote in 96 AD that Paul "taught righteousness to the whole world, and came to the extreme limit of the west." The phrase "extreme limit of the west" usually refers to Hispania, or Spain, in the Roman Empire. This implies Paul was released and traveled westward beyond Italy after his house arrest, fulfilling his intent to conduct mission work in Spain from the book Romans.

There is also a Muratorian canon from around 200 AD (discovered in 1740) that states, "the departure of Paul from the city [Rome] when he journeyed to Spain," suggesting Paul left Rome (post-acquittal) for Spain (theory #2 on my list).

[Right_Wing_Madman]

That is not a refutation of these testimonies as many things we know from history are not from direct eyewitness testimony.

It is also possible that Paul was arrested a second time. The book Timothy, written in 66 or 67 AD, describes Paul's imprisonment as harsh, "bound with chains as a criminal," and facing imminent death. This view of Paul's imprisonment is inconsistent with the conditions of his house arrest described in Acts and Philippians, and could be consistent with the environment Christians faced during Nero's purge in 64-67 AD.

By the way, there are no known first-hand eyewitness accounts of Nero's persecution in 64-67 AD. Official Roman records from the Nero period are sparse, and the ones that do exist discuss the court life and political intrigue during Nero, but none of them mention Nero's persecution of Christians, nor curiously, the great fire of Rome. Accounts of Rome's fire and Nero's treatment of Christians appeared later from secondary sources, around 100 AD.