(RNS) — Federal officials say they have arrested three of the protesters who disrupted a worship service at a Minnesota church this past weekend.
Attorney, minister, and civil rights activist, Nekima Levy Armstrong, leads a silent march for justice for George Floyd in downtown Minneapolis, Minnesota, on March 7, 2021 — the day before the beginning of the trial of Derek Chauvin (Lorie Shaull / flickr)
Attorney General Pam Bondi posted on Twitter that Nekima Levy Armstrong, one of the protest organizers, and alleged protester Chauntyll Louisa Allen were arrested on Thursday morning (Jan. 22). A third protester was arrested later in the day.
“Listen loud and clear: WE DO NOT TOLERATE ATTACKS ON PLACES OF WORSHIP,” Bondi tweeted.
Asked to confirm the arrests, the media office for the Department of Homeland Security emailed a link to a tweet about Armstrong’s arrest by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.
“Homeland Security Investigators and FBI agents arrested Nekima Levy Armstrong who played a key role in orchestrating the Church Riots in St. Paul, Minnesota,” Noem tweeted, adding that Armstrong was being charged with violating Section 241 of Title 18 of the U.S. Criminal Code, a section known as “conspiracy against rights.”
“Religious freedom is the bedrock of the United States — there is no first amendment right to obstruct someone from practicing their religion,” tweeted Noem.
FBI Director Kash Patel also tweeted about the arrest, saying the protest at Cities Church in St. Paul had violated the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act, which protects access to houses of worship and abortion clinics.
Bondi also posted on Thursday afternoon that protester William Kelly, who livestreamed the protest, has been arrested as well.
Kelly, who had given a press conference earlier this week, daring Bondi to arrest him, posted an obscenity-filled video on TikTok after Armstrong was arrested, saying his lawyers had assured him that federal officials had no grounds for arresting the protesters.“Now it’s time to shut this country down,” he said in denouncing Trump administration officials. “We are at fascism.”
The St. Paul Pioneer Press reported that a federal magistrate refused to authorize a warrant for journalist Don Lemon, who documented the protest.
Video of the protest, which went viral, shows activists standing up during the middle of a service at Cities Church, a Southern Baptist congregation, and shouting “Justice for Renee Good” and “ICE Out,” with some confronting worshippers about the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Minneapolis.
The U.S. Department of Justice is investigating a group of protesters in Minnesota who disrupted services at Cities Church, where a local official with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement apparently serves as a pastor. (Video screen grab, courtesy of the Center for Baptist Leadership)
Levy Armstrong told The Washington Post earlier this week that the protest was aimed at David Easterwood, a lay pastor at Cities Church who also works for ICE. She rejected the idea that the protesters had done anything wrong.
“They want to act as if they’re upset about peaceful protesters coming into a church to try to engage in meaningful dialogue,” she told the Post. “But the flip side is that the Trump administration has removed guard rails around ICE being able to come into churches,” Levy Armstrong said. “Either the church is a sanctuary or it’s not.”
Neither Cities Church or the SBC’s North American Mission Board, where Cities Church pastor Jonathan Parnell also serves as a missionary, commented on the arrests. The social media account for Christ Church DC, a start-up congregation in Washington with ties to conservative pastor Douglas Wilson and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, cheered the arrest of Kelly, who has protested in the past outside that church’s services.
“For months he has been treating our worshipers to his limited and repetitive vocabulary,” the church’s X account posted. “We celebrate the civil magistrate executing their duty to protect our right to worship by arresting William Kelly.”
In response to Bondi’s announcement of the arrests, Jacob Frey, the mayor of Minneapolis, called for Levy Armstrong “to be released immediately,” in an X post on Thursday.
“This is a gross abuse of power. The federal government is picking and choosing who to investigate — going after protestors and not the person who shot and killed one of our neighbors,” Frey also posted.
The St. Paul Police Department is also investigating the protesters for alleged disorderly conduct. A department spokesperson told RNS that 30 to 40 protesters had left the church by the time officers arrived on the scene. Leaders at Cities Church say they are also considering legal action against protesters.
During a visit to Minneapolis on Thursday, Vice President JD Vance did not directly address the protest at Cities Church. He did say that most of the protesters against ICE in that city have been peaceful — but some have not. And he said that demonstrators need to respect the rights of law enforcement officials and worshippers, saying that if protesters “storm a church,” they would be prosecuted.
“Respect people’s rights, respect people’s rights to worship, respect people’s rights to do their job without being assaulted,” he said during a press conference streamed online. “If you follow that basic principle, the Trump administration is going to do everything that we can to protect your rights. But if you go after somebody, if you assault somebody, if you make a 9-year-old girl cry because you walked into her church and harassed her, we’re going to go after you with every single tool that we have.”
A coalition of clergy is expected to travel to Minneapolis this week to join protests against ICE. The Trump administration’s immigration crackdown has left churches struggling to respond, with some immigrant congregations not meeting out of fear, some clergy joining protests, and others praising ICE’s actions.
