Feds investigating MN demonstration
Protesters interrupted church service in St. Paul
By: Grea Cross
and Christopher Cann
USA Today
..... The Department of Justice has opened an investigation into a Minnesota demonstration that interrupted a church service January 18. [2026]
.....
A group of protested rented Cities church in St. Paul, alleging that Pastor David Easterwood serve as the acting director of the U.S. Immigration and Customs enforcement's St. Paul Field Office.
..... "This is unacceptable," Lead Pastor Jonathan Parnell told former CNN anchor Don Lemon amid the protest. "It's shameful to interrupt a public gathering of Christians in worship."
..... Protesters claimed that Easterwood appeared alongside Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem during an ICE operations press conference in October 2025. As of January 20, [2026] USA Today was unable to confirm Easterwood's alleged role with ICE. Cities Church did not immediately respond to a request for further information on Easterwood, and the Department of Homeland Security declined to provide information on its agents, citing the need to protect their safety.
..... In an X post on January 18, [2026] U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said the Justice Department is investigating the protest as a potential violation of the FACE act, a federal law that prohibits the sue of force, threats or physical obstruction to block people form reproductive health care or access to religious worship under the First Amendment's right to religious freedom.
.... "If state leaders refuse to act responsibly to prevent lawlessness, this Department of Justice will remain mobilized to prosecute federal crimes and ensure that the rule of law prevails," Bondi wrote in a second post.
..... St. Paul Police Department pubic information officer Nikki Muehlhausen told USA Today that officers responded to the church, but by the time they arrived, the group of 30 to 40 protesters had moved outside. The departments investigating the protest as disorderly conduct, Muehlhausen added.
.....
President Donald Trump, who has threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act and deploy troops to Minnesota, on January 20 [2026] called for the arrest and potential deportation of those involved in the demonstration.
..... Protests in Minnesota and nationally have continued since an ICE officer fatally shot Renee Nicole Good on January 7. [2026] The shooting has deepened fissures between federal and state officials.
..... Minnesota Governor Tim Walz has been vocal about his contempt for how the federal government is handling Good's death, notably its refusal to investigate the agent who shot Good and the opening of an investigation into Walz and Minneapolis mayor Jacob Frey in connection with an alleged conspiracy to impede ICE's work in the state.
..... However, Walz's office said in a January 19 [2026] statement, "while people have a right to speak out, [Walz] in no way supports interrupting a place of worship."
..... Minnesota and the Twin Cities sued the federal government on January 12 [2026] seeking to stop the deployment of immigration agents, saying the intervention violates the state's constitutional rights. U.S. district Judge Kate Menendez declined to issue an immediate restraining order expelling some 3,000 federal agents from Minnesota.
..... In response, the Justice Department asked the judge on January 19 [2026] to allow the Trump administration's mitigation operations to continue.
..... "Any injunction here would unduly interfere with federal immigration enforcement," lawyers for the trump administration said in a filing, adding that such a move "would effectively give Minnesota state and local officials veto power over federal immigration on enforcement within the borders on Minnesota."
.....
Menedez, who was appointed by former President Joe Biden, is also overseeing a lawsuit filed in December [2025] on behalf of six Minnesota activists who said federal agents violate their constitutional rights.
..... The judge issued a ruling in that case January 17 [2026] barring agents from using tactics against people in Minnesota who are peacefully protesting or merely observing officers unless there is reasonable suspicion that they are interfering with law enforcement or have commuted a crime. Such aggressive tactics, Menendez said, would "chill" an ordinary citizen form engaging in constitutionally protected protest.
..... Noem, speaking on CBS news' Face the Nation: on January 18, [2026] called the order "a little ridiculous" and said it didn't "change anything for how we're operation on the ground." The Justice Department has appealed the injunction.
Man dragged outside in shorts
..... Also on January 18, [2026] ICE officers broke down the door of a house in St. Paul with guns drawn and dragged a naturalized U.S. citizen out into the snow wearing shorts and crocs. The highest local temperature that day was 14 degrees.
.....
ChongLy Thao, 56, a Hmong man born in Laos who goes by the name Scott, was returned home hours later without explanation or apology, he said.
..... Pictures showing Thao barely clothed and covered in a blanket taken by a Reuters photographer and bystander spread on social media, further fueling concern that federal law enforcement officers were exceeding their authority.
.... The Department of Homeland Security said officers were investigating two convicted sex offenders at the address and that a U.S. citizen living there refused to be fingerprinted or facially identified, so he was detained.
..... "He matched the description of the targets. As with any law enforcement agency, it is standardized protocol to hold all individuals in a house of an operation for safety of the public and law enforcement," DHS spokespersons Tricia McLauhlin said in a statement.
..... DHS described each of the two men targeted as a "criminal illegal alien" from Laos who is subject to deportation orders. One of the men previously lived at the house but moved out, according to relatives close to the situation.
..... As the agents were dragging Thao, "I was praying. I was like, God, pleas help me. I didn't do anything wrong, Why do on," he told Reuters from his home January 19 [2026] while neighbors were at work fixing his broken door.
..... Contributing: Reuters