.png)
3 hours ago
5
Federal authorities have arrested more people on Friday for their alleged involvement in a protest at a church in Minnesota in January, following earlier arrests of organizers and journalists that were demonstrating amid sweeping, and often violent, immigration enforcement efforts in the state.
Attorney general Pam Bondi said the justice department unsealed an indictment that charged 30 more people for the demonstration. Of those charged, federal agents have already arrested 25 of them, Bondi said, with “more to come”. The latest arrests bring the total number of people charged to 39.
“YOU CANNOT ATTACK A HOUSE OF WORSHIP. If you do so, you cannot hide from us — we will find you, arrest you, and prosecute you. This Department of Justice STANDS for Christians and all Americans of faith,” Bondi said on X.
Nekima Levy Armstrong, a civil rights attorney in Minnesota who was charged previously over the demonstration at Cities Church in St Paul, said on Facebook that the additional people had been arrested Friday morning and would have a hearing later the same day, calling on community members to show up to support those charged.
Two independent journalists, Don Lemon and Georgia Fort, were also previously charged over the protest, though they have maintained they were covering it as reporters and not participating in it.
Brixton Hughes, identified by Levy Armstrong as an independent journalist, was among those arrested Friday. “Feds at my door,” Hughes posted on Facebook.
Demonstrators had disrupted a service at Cities Church on 18 January to draw attention to one of the pastors, David Easterwood, who was allegedly serving as acting field director of the St Paul Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) office.
The protest came after Renee Good was killed by federal agents in Minneapolis. A second Minnesotan, Alex Pretti, was later killed by federal agents in the city as thousands of immigration agents arrested and detained migrants in the Twin Cities metro area.
“We thought congregants would want to know they have a pastor in their church doubling as the director for the ICE field office in Minnesota,” Levy Armstrong wrote in a local publication about the purpose of the Cities Church demonstration. “The core of the gospel message is to love thy neighbor as you love yourself. And ICE has been doing the opposite of that: terrorizing our neighbors, brutalizing people, and even murdering people.”
The Trump administration and Republican officials condemned the protest and have been filing charges against people involved in it.
“Listen loud and clear: WE DO NOT TOLERATE ATTACKS ON PLACES OF WORSHIP,” attorney general Pam Bondi said in a post on X after the initial arrests.
A member of the church separately filed a federal lawsuit against those charged by the federal government, NBC News reported on Thursday. The congregant claimed in the lawsuit that “the worship service was disrupted, congregants experienced fear and distress, and plaintiff’s ability to freely exercise her religion in a private place of worship was unlawfully interfered with”.
