Faith-Based Daily Awareness Post 6 November 2025

These updates are shared to help raise the situational awareness of Faith-Based organizations to best defend against and mitigate the impacts from all-hazards threats including physical security, cybersecurity, and natural disasters. 

Episcopal diocese says ICE detained one of its priests; DHS says he overstayed his visa

The Episcopal Diocese of Texas reports that one of its priests, a Kenyan-born cleric named James Eliud Ngahu Mwangi who has been working for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice and serving the church, was detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in late October and held at a Conroe, Texas detention facility. ICE and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security say Mwangi overstayed a B1 visitor visa that required him to depart by May 16, 2024, and thus they consider him removable.

As the article notes, ICE has previously apprehended clergy of various denominations who have not known a history of violent criminal behavior since the immigration crackdown beginning at the start of this year. Incidents include a Guatemalan pastor in Florida, a Congolese pastor who founded a church in Maine, and a Honduran pastor in Maryland.

Analyst Comment: No matter their size, faith based organizations (FBOs) have an international reach and, therefore, can have international personnel. Due to the current political environment, international staff at FBOs are at higher risk of being detained by ICE, leading to staffing and morale impacts across the organization. It may be beneficial for FBOs to consider having honest and respectful conversations with all staff about their immigration status, in order to determine the organization’s response in case an ICE detainment occurs.

Hours after bitter mayoral election ends, hate-filled vandals hit Jewish cemetery, yeshiva

Early Wednesday morning in the Gravesend neighborhood of Brooklyn, two large red swastikas were discovered spray‐painted on the exterior of Magen David Yeshivah, an Orthodox Jewish school situated on McDonald Avenue. The vandalism is being investigated by the New York City Police Department Hate Crimes Task Force and is being treated as an antisemitic act.

The occurrence took place just hours after Zohran Mamdani was elected mayor of New York City, and several public officials and community members linked the timing of the attack to broader concerns around rising antisemitism and the city’s political climate. Mayor Elect Zohran Mamdani, Governor Kathy Hochul, and other elected officials condemned the act, with Governor Hochul announcing plans to allocate an additional $20 million in the state budget toward security for sensitive locations, raising the total two-year allocation to $90 million.

Analyst Comment: This incident underscores the impact of today’s heightened political environment on the security of FBOs, especially in the immediate aftermath of contentious elections. FBOs in cities or states with an ongoing, controversial election, especially with religious or racial undertones, could consider maintaining heightened awareness during these periods, even procuring additional security resources on the eve of the election in order to deter opportunistic vandals who are emotional in the aftermath of victory or defeat.