MN protesters arrested ahead of Vance visit
By: Christopher Cann
USA Today
..... Ahead of his January 22 [2026] visit to Minneapolis, vice President JD Vance touted the arrests of two people involved in a protest that interrupted Sunday [01/18/2026] service at a church in Saint Paul, Minnesota.
.....
U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi identified those arrested as Kekima Levy Armstorn and Chauntyll Louisa Allen. She did not described any alleged charges. "More to come," she said on X. "WE WILL PROTECT OUR HOUSES OF WORSHIPS."
..... "I certainly want to see more arrests," Vance said. "Because I've seen the videos and these are very clearly more people who have violated the law."
..... A group of protesters entered Cities Church on JAnaur 18 [2026] alleging that Pastor David Easterwood serves as action director of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Saint Paul Field Office. divides show dozens of protesters chanting "Renee Good," and "don't shoot," as some verbally confronted churchgoers. they were referring to the deadly shooting of Renee Nicole Good by an ICE agent on Janauray7. [2026]
..... The DOJ said the pretest may violate the FACE Act, a fella law that prohibits the sue of force, threats or physical obstruction to block people from reproductive helaht care or access to religious worship under the First Amendment right to religious freedom.
..... "They're scaring little kids who are there to worship God on a Sunday [01/18/2026] morning," Vance said of the protesters. "Those people are going to be sent to prison."
..... A White House official said Vance would meet with ICE officers during his visit, deliver remarks praising their work and criticize Minneapolis, "sanctuary" policies that limit cooperation with federal immigration authorities.
..... Outrage has continued to mount i Minnesota over the highly viable immigration operations. The latest incident prompting scrutiny involved ICE agents detain a 5-year-old boy in the Minneapolis suburb of Columbia Heights.
..... Zena Stenvik, the superintendent of Columbia Hights Public Schools said federal immigration agents had detained four students over the last two weeks, including a 5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos and his father, who he said were detained in their driveway as they returned form school on January 20. [2026]
..... Stenvik said ICE agents refused to allow the boy to stay with an adult who lived in the house and instead told the boy to knock on his front door "to see if anyone else was home - essentially using a 5-year-old as bait."
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Liam and his father were brought to a detention facility in Texas," Stenvik said, adding that they had active asylum cases and d did not have deportation orders.
..... Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement that ICE conducted a "targeted operation" to detain Liam's father.
..... "ICE did NOT target a child," she said.
..... Community organizers have asked people to call out of work, skip school and refrain from buying anything on January 23 [2026] as a protest.
..... Over the last two weeks, students across Minnesota have held walkouts decrying the immigration operation and Good's killing.