Federal authorities said Thursday they had arrested two activists in Minnesota accused of playing a role in organizing a protest Sunday at a St. Paul-area church that quickly became a flash point in the debate over the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown.
Attorney General Pam Bondi announced the arrests of Nekima Levy Armstrong, a civil rights attorney, and Chauntyll Louisa Allen, a member of St. Paul’s school board, in a social media post. Bondi did not say what charges they are facing, and, as of Thursday morning, there were no publicly available court documents detailing accusations.
FBI Director Kash Patel said on social media that Armstrong has been charged with violating the FACE Act, a law typically used to protect access to abortion clinics but one the Trump administration has deployed to target demonstrators at protests at houses of worship.
It was not immediately clear Thursday whether either Armstrong or Allen had retained attorneys.
The arrests occur amid rising tensions involving the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement efforts in Minnesota. For weeks, demonstrators have protested the presence of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in the state — a situation exacerbated by the Jan. 7 fatal shooting of Renée Good by an ICE officer.
Justice Department officials have refused calls to examine the shooting, saying no basis exists to criminally investigate whether the officer used excessive force. Instead, they have pushed for an investigation into Good’s partner, who was protesting ICE officers at the time of the shooting, and subpoenaed state and local officials as part of a criminal probe alleging their rhetoric has interfered with ICE’s operations.
The Jan. 18 church protest, which interrupted services at Cities Church in St. Paul, has drawn widespread condemnation from online right-wing influencers and vows from top Justice Department officials that demonstrators will be prosecuted.
Video posted to social media showed dozens of protesters at a Sunday morning service, many chanting “ICE out” and “Justice for Renée Good.” Activists said they targeted the church because they thought David Easterwood, who they believed to be the acting field director of the city’s ICE field office, served as a pastor there.
Easterwood was not at the church at the time. The crowd left shortly afterward and was outside the building by the time St. Paul police arrived in response to multiple calls about a disturbance.
A police department spokesperson said local officers are reviewing the incident as part of a disorderly conduct investigation.
Outrage quickly erupted online, and, within hours, top Trump administration officials responded, labeling the demonstration an attempt at “intimidation and harassment of Christians.”
Bondi said that same day the department had opened a FACE Act investigation into the incident.
Armstrong, in an Wednesday interview with CNN, said the rhetoric surrounding the protest mischaracterized what occurred.
“We did not rush into that church,” she said. “We actually went and sat down and participated in the service. And after the pastor prayed, that is when I stood up and asked him a question in response to his prayer. And then he responded to me. And then I proceeded to ask him about Pastor David Easterwood, and how is it possible for him to serve as both a pastor and the director of ICE for Minnesota?”
She continued: “I want to clarify that we didn’t rush in. We didn’t bust in. We were a part of the service until I got up and posed that question to the pastor.”
Passed in 1994, the FACE Act has primarily been known for protecting access to reproductive health clinics by making it a crime for demonstrators to block entrances, damage property or threaten patients.
During the Biden administration, Republicans accused the Justice Department of wielding the act as a cudgel to punish antiabortion demonstrators for exercising their First Amendment rights.
Since President Donald Trump’s return to the White House, the department has cut back on FACE Act prosecutions and deployed the law instead to target protests staged outside houses of worship.
Those cases are based on a little-known provision of the statute that also criminalizes attempts to injure or intimidate people seeking to exercise their protected right to religious freedom.
Molly Hennessy-Fiske contributed to this report.
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