AG Pam Bondi: 2 community leaders arrested over disruption of ICE pastor's church services

Attorney General Pam Bondi on Thursday announced that Nekima Levy Armstrong has been arrested in connection with the disruption of services at a church where a local official with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement serves as a pastor. 

The incident happened on Sunday, as a group joined services at the Cities Church in St. Paul before chanting "ICE out" and "Justice for Renee Good." One of the church's pastors, David Easterwood, leads the local ICE field office, and one of the leaders of the protest and prominent local activist Armstrong said she's also an ordained pastor.

Bondi also announced the arrest of Chauntyll Louisa Allen, an elected member of the St. Paul School Board. Allen was also instrumental in the building of the Black Lives Matter Twin Cities chapter. Armstrong formerly served as president for the Twin Cities chapter of the NAACP, and in 2017 ran for mayor of Minneapolis, ultimately losing to current Mayor Jacob Frey.

The law Bondi cited in her announcement — 18 U.S. Code § 241 — describes it pertaining to when "two or more persons conspire to injure, oppress, threaten, or intimidate any person in any State, Territory, Commonwealth, Possession, or District in the free exercise or enjoyment of any right or privilege secured to him by the Constitution or laws of the United States."

The Minnesota-Wisconsin Baptist Convention called what happened "an unacceptable trauma," saying the service was "forced to end prematurely" as protesters shouted "insults and accusations at youth, children, and families."

The demonstration is one of a number of protests that have cropped up in the Twin Cities metro area and Greater Minnesota following the fatal shooting of U.S. citizen Renee Good by an ICE agent in south Minneapolis earlier this month. The recent surge in operations in Minnesota has pitted more than 3,000 federal immigration officers against community activists and protesters. The Trump administration and Minnesota officials have traded blame for the heightened tensions.

Many faith leaders were dismayed when the government announced last January that federal immigration agencies can make arrests in churches, schools and hospitals, ending the protection of people in sensitive spaces.

No immigration raids during church services have been reported, but some churches have posted notices on their doors saying no federal immigration officers are allowed inside. Others have reported a drop in attendance, particularly during enforcement surges.

Earlier this week, Justice Department Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon said her agency is investigating federal civil rights violations "by these people desecrating a house of worship and interfering with Christian worshippers."

In a statement to The Associated Press, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz's spokesperson said that while people have a right to speak out, the governor doesn't support interrupting a place of worship.

Several pastors have called for better security in churches.

The Rev. Joe Rigney, one of the founding pastors at Cities Church in 2015 who served there until 2023, said safety would have been his first concern had a group disrupted service, especially since the fatal shooting at a Minneapolis Catholic school Mass last summer.

The website of St. Paul-based Cities Church lists Easterwood as a pastor there, and his personal information appears to match that of the David Easterwood identified in court filings as the acting director of the ICE St. Paul field office. Easterwood appeared alongside DHS Secretary Kristi Noem at a Minneapolis press conference last October.

In a Jan. 5 court filing, Easterwood defended ICE's tactics in Minnesota such as swapping license plates and spraying protesters with chemical irritants. He wrote that federal agents were experiencing increased threats and aggression and crowd control devices like flash-bang grenades were important to protect against violent attacks. 

Christians disagree on immigration enforcement

Christians in the United States are divided on the moral and legal dilemmas raised by immigration, including the presence of an estimated 11 million people who are in the country illegally and the spike in illegal border crossings and asylum requests during the Biden administration.

Opinions differ between and within denominations on whether Christians must prioritize care for strangers and neighbors or the immigration enforcement push in the name of security. White evangelicals tend to support strong enforcement, while Catholic leaders have spoken in favor of migrant rights.

The Southern Baptist Convention is the largest Protestant denomination in the U.S. and has a conservative evangelical theology.

Miles Mullin, the vice president of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, said faith leaders can and often have led protests on social issues, but those should never prevent others from worshipping.

"This is something that just shouldn't happen in America," Mullin said. "For Baptists, our worship services are sacred."

On Facebook, Levy Armstrong wrote about Sunday's protest in religious terms: "It's time for judgment to begin and it will begin in the House of God!!!"

But Albert Mohler, the president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, called the protesters' tactics unjustifiable.

"For Christians, the precedent of invading a congregation at worship should be unthinkable," Mohler said in an interview. "I think the political left is crossing a threshold."

Brian Kaylor, a Cooperative Baptist Fellowship-affiliated minister and leader of the Christian media organization Word&Way, called having an ICE official serve as a pastor "a serious moral failure."

But Kaylor, who has spoken out against the Trump administration's treatment of immigrants, said he was "very torn" by the protesters' action inside a church.

"It would be very alarming if we come to see this become a widespread tactic across the political spectrum," he said.