15:19

Brief

The Potluck

30 more charged for protesting at Twin Cities church where pastor is ICE official

Independent journalist and former CNN anchor Don Lemon exits the Warren E. Burger Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse in St. Paul, Minn. on Friday, Feb. 13, 2026. Lemon pleaded not guilty to federal charges stemming from his coverage of a protest against a pastor and ICE official at a St. Paul church in January. (Photo by Alex Baumhardt/Minnesota Reformer)

U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi announced Friday the Department of Justice indictments charging 30 more people who took part in a protest laset month inside Cities Church in St. Paul, where a pastor is a senior official at the St. Paul office U.S. Immigration and Customes Enforcement.

“At my direction, federal agents have already arrested 25 of them, with more to come throughout the day. YOU CANNOT ATTACK A HOUSE OF WORSHIP,” Bondi wrote on X.

Bondi’s exhortation arrives even as thousands of churches committed to protecting immigrants have launched lawsuits against the federal government for reversing a decades-old policy not to engage in immigration enforcement at or near houses of worship, as Politico reported Friday.

Separately, in a federal lawsuit filed Monday, a group of Minnesota clergy accused the Trump administration of violating the religious freedom of faith leaders by denying them entry to the Whipple Federal Building in Minneapolis to provide pastoral care to detainees.

In the Cities Church case, the Department of Justice previously arrested former CNN anchor Don Lemon, his producer Jerome Richardson, independent journalist Georgia Fort, civil rights activist Nekima Levy Armstrong, St. Paul School Board Member Chauntyll Allen and three more demonstrators, as well as Black Lives Matter activist Trahern Jeen Crews, who was present during the protest.

They’ve all pleaded not guilty to federal felony charges of conspiracy against the right of religious freedom at a place of worship and injuring, intimidating and interfering with the exercise of right of religious freedom at a place of worship.

A consortium of local news outlets, including the Reformer, has condemned the arrests of the journalists.

On Jan. 18, Fort and Lemon filmed demonstrators interrupting the service at Cities Church with chants of “Justice for Renee Good,” who was shot and killed by an ICE agent nearly two weeks earlier as the Trump administration sent thousands of immigration agents to Minnesota as part of Operation Metro Surge.

David Easterwood, a church pastor, is an ICE field director in St. Paul, but did not appear to be present at the service during the protest.

Demonstrators sought to point out the contradiction between working for ICE and preaching the Christian Gospel.

Doug Wardlow, a unsuccessful Republican candidate for Minnesota attorney general who is representing the church, issued a statement after Friday’s indictments, saying, in part: “Houses of worship are off limits for those who would use chaos and intimidation to advance a political agenda. The invasion of Cities Church was a planned, coordinated effort to disrupt a worship service and interfere with religious exercise.”

Our stories may be republished online or in print under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. We ask that you edit only for style or to shorten, provide proper attribution and link to our website. AP and Getty images may not be republished. Please see our republishing guidelines for use of any other photos and graphics.