A church in Indiana has placed a statue of Mary, Joseph, and the baby Jesus inside a metal fence, in order to its highlight opposition to Donald Trump’s immigration policy, which has led to the splitting up of families.

Steve Carlsen, Dean of Christ Church Cathedral in Indianapolis, said he and members of his team, came up with the idea to underscore that the Biblical story of Christ’s birth, was of a family in transit and struggling to find shelter.

“People have been citing the Bible in ways I don’t understand,” Mr Carlsen told The Independent. “The story is of a family being taken in. Sometimes we forget that the original original creche was not a great place to be.”

After Mr Carlsen and his colleagues placed the caged statues on a patch of grass outside the church where they usually place a nativity statue, a member of his team, Canon Lee Curtis, blessed them with holy water.

Mr Carlsen, who said his family had moved to the US from Norway four generations ago, said the church had a history of advocating on behalf of the vulnerable and threatened. The message on the church’s telephone switchboard, says: “Thank you for calling Christ Church Cathedral - all are welcome here.”

He said it was possible not everybody in his congregation would support the move. But he felt obliged to act in a way he felt that God had taught.

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He said he and his colleagues had been given additional inspiration to act after learning that the Trump administration was seeking the blanket detention of all asylum seekers arriving in the US, including those who had passed a so-called “credible fear” test.

On Monday, a federal judge blocked the systematic detention of migrants. In a tersely worded ruling, Judge James Boasberg of the Federal District Court for the District of Columbia, found the government’s own directive calling for asylum applicants to be freed when appropriate while their cases are pending had been honoured “more in the breach than the observance”.

The ruling came after the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and other rights groups launched a joint class-action lawsuit in March, challenging the administration's policy of detaining asylum seekers.

The protest at Christ Church Cathedral comes two weeks after Mr Trump signed an executive order that ended his administration’s practice of separating families at the US-Mexico border.

Yet, several thousand young people have already seen separated from their families and the government appears to have little idea on how to reunite them.

Undocumented immigration across the US-Mexico border Show all 14 1 /14 Undocumented immigration across the US-Mexico border Undocumented immigration across the US-Mexico border Immigrant children, many of whom are separated form their parents, are housed in Texas' tent city Reuters Undocumented immigration across the US-Mexico border A two-year-old Honduran asylum seeker cries as her mother is searched and detained near the US-Mexico border Getty Undocumented immigration across the US-Mexico border Undocumented migrants ride on the top of a freight train referred to as the beast, or La Bestia Getty Undocumented immigration across the US-Mexico border A cage inside a US Customs and Border Protection detention facility in Texas Reuters Undocumented immigration across the US-Mexico border US Border Patrol Academy All new agents must complete a months-long training course at the New Mexico facility before assuming their posts at Border Patrol stations, mostly along the US-Mexico border Getty Undocumented immigration across the US-Mexico border US-Mexico border fence A group of young men walk along the Mexican side of the US-Mexico border fence in a remote area of the Sonoran Desert Getty Undocumented immigration across the US-Mexico border US-Mexico border fence in the US Man looks through US-Mexico border fence into the US in Tijuana, Mexico Getty Undocumented immigration across the US-Mexico border US-Mexico border fence US Border Patrol agent Sal De Leon stands near a section of the US-Mexico border fence while stopping on patrol on in La Joya, Texas Getty Undocumented immigration across the US-Mexico border US Border Patrol Academy US Border Patrol instructor yells at trainees after their initial arrival to the academy Getty Undocumented immigration across the US-Mexico border Memorial service in Guatemala Families attend a memorial service for two boys who were kidnapped and killed in San Juan Sacatepequez, Guatemala. Crime drives emigration from Guatemala to the United States, as families seek refuge from the danger Getty Undocumented immigration across the US-Mexico border Arrests on the border Undocumented immigrants comfort each other after being caught by Border Patrol agents near the US-Mexico border Getty Undocumented immigration across the US-Mexico border Detention holding facility A boy from Honduras watches a movie at a detention facility run by the US Border Patrol Getty Undocumented immigration across the US-Mexico border Mexican farm workers Mexican migrant workers harvest organic parsley at Grant Family Farms in Wellington, Colorado Getty Undocumented immigration across the US-Mexico border Mexican family in Arizona A Mexican immigrant family sits in the living room of their rented home in Tuscon, Arizona. The family that Arizona's new tough immigrant law had created a climate of fear in the immigrant community. Getty

Among those who have quoted the bible to defend the government’s immigration policy is Attorney General Jeff Sessions.

“I would cite you to the Apostle Paul and his clear and wise command in Romans 13, to obey the laws of the government because God has ordained the government for his purposes,” Mr Sessions said, during a speech to law enforcement officers in Fort Wayne, Indiana, last month.

“Orderly and lawful processes are good in themselves. Consistent and fair application of the law is in itself a good and moral thing, and that protects the weak and protects the lawful.”