MINNEAPOLIS – A prominent civil rights attorney and at least two other people involved in an anti-immigration enforcement protest that disrupted a service at a Minnesota church have been arrested, Trump administration officials said Thursday, even as a judge rebuffed related charges against journalist Don Lemon.
The developments unfolded as Vice President JD Vance arrived in the state. Speaking in Minneapolis, he urged state and local law enforcement to collaborate with federal officials and said protesters must stop getting in their way.
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Attorney General Pam Bondi announced the arrest of Nekima Levy Armstrong in a post on X. On Sunday, protesters entered the Cities Church in St. Paul, where a local official with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement serves as a pastor. Bondi later posted on X that a second person had been arrested, followed by a third arrest announced by FBI Director Kash Patel.
The Justice Department quickly opened a civil rights investigation after the group interrupted services by chanting “ICE out” and “Justice for Renee Good," referring to the 37-year-old mother of three who was fatally shot by an ICE officer in Minneapolis earlier this month.
“Listen loud and clear: WE DO NOT TOLERATE ATTACKS ON PLACES OF WORSHIP," the attorney general wrote on X.
Cities Church belongs to the Southern Baptist Convention and lists one of its pastors as David Easterwood, who leads the local ICE field office. Many Baptist churches have pastors who also work other jobs.
Church lawyers praise the arrests
Prominent leaders of the Southern Baptist Convention have come to the church’s defense, arguing that compassion for migrant families affected by the crackdown cannot justify violating a sacred space during worship.
Attorneys representing the church hailed the arrests.
“The U.S. Department of Justice acted decisively by arresting those who coordinated and carried out the terrible crime,” said Doug Wardlow, director of litigation for True North Legal, which calls itself a public interest civil rights firm, in a statement.
Levy Armstrong, an attorney and prominent local activist, had called for the pastor affiliated with ICE to resign, saying his dual role poses a “fundamental moral conflict.”
“You cannot lead a congregation while directing an agency whose actions have cost lives and inflicted fear in our communities,” she said Tuesday. “When officials protect armed agents, repeatedly refuse meaningful investigation into killings like Renee Good’s, and signal they may pursue peaceful protesters and journalists, that is not justice — it is intimidation.”
Vance wants local law enforcement to assist federal officers
Vance, a Republican, arrived amid tense interactions between federal immigration law enforcement authorities and residents. State and local elected officials have opposed the crackdown that has become a major focus of Department of Homeland Security sweeps.
His visit comes less than a month after Renee Good was killed. He has called Good’s death a “tragedy of her own making.”
Speaking in Toledo, Ohio, before his Minnesota visit, Vance warned the church protesters: “Those people are going to be sent to prison so long as we have the power to do so. We’re going to do everything we can to enforce the law."
Later in Minneapolis, he urged state and city law enforcement to help the federal immigration officers.
“We’re doing everything that we can to lower the temperature,” Vance said, adding that he wants “state and local officials to meet us halfway.”
Protesters appear in court
A longtime activist in the Twin Cities metropolitan area, Levy Armstrong has helped lead local protests after the high-profile police-involved killings of Black Americans, including George Floyd, Philando Castile and Jamar Clark. She is a former president of the NAACP’s Minneapolis branch.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem posted a photo on X of Levy Armstrong with her arms behind her back next to a person wearing a badge. Noem said she faces a charge under a statute that bars threatening or intimidating someone exercising a right.
Patel posted on X that Chauntyll Louisa Allen, the second person Bondi said was arrested, is charged under the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act, which prohibits physically obstructing or using the threat of force to intimidate or interfere with a person seeking reproductive health services or seeking to participate in a service at a house of worship. Patel said William Kelly has also been arrested.
It's unclear which attorneys would represent Allen and Kelly.
Saint Paul Public Schools, where Allen is a member of the board of education, is aware of her arrest but will not comment on pending legal matters, according to district spokesperson Erica Wacker.
Allen and Levy Armstrong are part of a community of Black Minnesota activists who have protested the deaths of African Americans at the hands of police.
Kelly defended the protest during a news conference Tuesday, criticizing the church for its association with a pastor who works for ICE.
In court Thursday, federal magistrate judge Doug Micko granted the women bond and restricted them from traveling outside Minnesota or from going near the church. The government said it would appeal.
Levy-Armstrong’s attorney said he offered for her to turn herself in peacefully, but the Trump administration insisted on arresting her.
“They wanted a spectacle,” Levy-Armstrong’s husband Marques Armstrong said, recalling around 50 agents came to detain his wife.
Arrests follow a DOJ civil rights investigation
The Justice Department’s swift investigation into the church protest stands in contrast to its decision not to open a civil rights investigation into the killing of Good. Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said last week there was “no basis” for a civil rights investigation into her death.
Administration officials have said the officer acted in self-defense and that the driver of the Honda was engaging in “an act of domestic terrorism” when she pulled toward him. But the decision not to have the department’s Civil Rights Division investigate marked a sharp departure from past administrations, which have moved quickly to probe shootings of civilians by law enforcement officials.
The Justice Department has separately opened an investigation into whether Minnesota officials impeded or obstructed federal immigration enforcement though their public statements. Prosecutors this week sent subpoenas to the offices of Gov. Tim Walz, Attorney General Keith Ellison, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, St. Paul Mayor Kaohly Her and officials in Ramsey and Hennepin counties, according to a person familiar with the matter.
Judge rejects charges against Lemon
A magistrate judge rejected federal prosecutors’ bid to charge journalist Don Lemon related to the church protest, a person familiar with the matter said Thursday.
The person spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly discuss the ongoing investigation.
Lemon was among those on who entered the church. Lemon has said he is not affiliated with the protest organizers and was there chronicling as a journalist.
“Once the protest started in the church we did an act of journalism which was report on it and talk to the people involved, including the pastor, members of the church and members of the organization,” Lemon said in a video posted on social media. “That’s it. That’s called journalism.”
It wasn’t immediately clear what the Justice Department would do after the judge’s decision. Authorities could return to a magistrate judge to again seek a criminal complaint or an indictment against Lemon before a grand jury.
CNN, which fired Lemon in 2023, first reported the ruling.
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Durkin Richer reported from Washington. Associated Press reporters Chris Megerian in Washington; Corey Williams in Detroit; Jack Dura in Bismarck, North Dakota; and Mike Catalini in Trenton, New Jersey, contributed.
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