Federal Investigation Begins After Anti-ICE Protest in Church

Federal prosecutors are now looking into a protest Sunday at a church in Minnesota that zeroed in on a senior Immigration and Customs Enforcement official who also serves as a pastor there. Video of the service at Cities Church in St. Paul shows dozens of demonstrators entering mid-worship, CNN reports, chanting "ICE out!" and calling for "David Easterwood, out now!" Protesters say they were targeting the church because Easterwood, who's listed as a pastor, is also ICE's acting field office director for enforcement and removal operations in St. Paul and a defendant in a recent lawsuit over immigration enforcement tactics. The clips don't show Easterwood in the building.

Within hours, Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon said the Justice Department would investigate the protest under the federal FACE Act, which bars using force or obstruction to interfere with people seeking to worship. Attorney General Pam Bondi posted that "attacks against law enforcement and the intimidation of Christians are being met with the full force of federal law." The rapid response contrasted with the administration's handling of the fatal Jan. 7 shooting of Renee Good by a Border Patrol agent, in which the idea of a Justice Department inquiry was quickly rejected and federal authorities have declined to assist local investigators.

Civil rights attorney and former Minneapolis NAACP leader Nekima Levy Armstrong dismissed the threatened probe as political theater, arguing officials are showing more concern for a disrupted church service than for "atrocities that we are experiencing in our community." The video, posted by Black Lives Matter Minnesota, captures one of the protesters saying, per ABC News: "Someone who claims to worship God, teaching people in this church about God, is out there overseeing ICE agents. Think about what we've experienced."