\n<\/p>\n
Nekima Levy Armstrong holds up her fist after speaking at an anti-ICE rally in St. Paul, January 19, 2026.<\/span>Angelina Katsanis\/AP<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n The Trump<\/span> administration<\/span> is using an anti-Ku Klux Klan law to prosecute Minnesota activists for demonstrating against ICE at a St. Paul church. On Thursday, Attorney General Pam Bondi announced that the Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Bureau of Investigation had arrested Chauntyll Allen, Nekima Levy Armstrong, and William Kelly for their alleged involvement in a January 18 anti-ICE demonstration. The three protesters were charged with conspiracy to deprive rights\u2014a federal felony under Section 241, a Reconstruction-era statute enacted to safeguard the rights of Black Americans to vote and engage in public life amid the KKK\u2019s racial violence.<\/p>\n Levy Armstrong and Allen are both prominent Black community organizers. Levy Armstrong leads the grassroots civil rights nonprofit Racial Justice Network and once served as the president of the Minneapolis chapter of the NAACP. Allen is a member of the St. Paul School Board and a founder of Black Lives Matter Twin Cities. (The DOJ did not immediately respond to requests for comment, nor did lawyers for Levy Armstrong, Allen, or Kelly.) <\/p>\n An affidavit filed in support of the government\u2019s case by a special agent with ICE\u2019s Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) also claims that the protesters sought to violate the \u201cfree exercise of religion at a place of religious worship secured by the FACE Act,\u201d a 1994 federal law designed to protect people seeking abortion services. The affidavit appears to name several other redacted defendants as participants in the conspiracy.<\/p>\n Videos showed the group of activists disrupting the St. Paul church service with chants of \u201cICE out\u201d and \u201cJustice for Renee Good,\u201d a reference to the 37-year-old mother of three who was fatally shot<\/a> by an ICE agent<\/a> in Minneapolis earlier this month. Protesters selected the church because they say one of its pastors, David Easterwood, leads a local ICE field office. Reporting from PBS<\/a> found that the church pastor\u2019s personal information matches that of the acting director of the ICE St. Paul field office, and that Easterwood \u201cappeared alongside DHS Secretary Kristi Noem at a Minneapolis press conference last October.\u201d<\/p>\n The HSI agent\u2019s affidavit designates Easterwood as \u201cVictim 1.\u201d The document also lists several chants <\/span>made by \u201cagitators\u201d that \u201cterrorized the parishioners,\u201d including \u201cthis is what community looks like\u201d and \u201chands up, don\u2019t shoot.\u201d<\/span> (According to the affidavit, one churchgoer only heard the word \u201cshoot\u201d and therefore feared the protesters could have guns.) The agent also characterizes Good\u2019s death as \u201can officer-involved shooting as a result of her assault on an immigration officer.\u201d<\/p>\n A press release <\/a>published by DHS on Friday called the three arrested activists \u201cringleaders\u201d of a \u201cchurch riot\u201d and alleged that their actions amounted to an \u201cattack on churchgoers\u2019 religious freedom.\u201d But a legal filing from Levy Armstrong\u2019s lawyer arguing for his client\u2019s pretrial release notes that Levy Armstrong herself is a Christian reverend.<\/p>\n \u201cContrary to the charges, there was no intent to deprive anyone of their right to worship, but the desire was to initiate a debate about religious values,\u201d her lawyer wrote. \u201cIt was a non-violent protest, which under a normal government, would not lead to criminal charges, much less federal felony charges.\u201d All three organizers were released from federal custody on Friday.<\/p>\n The extraordinary decision to charge the protesters with felony <\/strong>federal conspiracy against civil rights <\/strong>comes after footage of the event sparked days of viral outrage among Trump\u2019s supporters, with right-wing websites calling the protest a \u201cmob,\u201d \u201criot,\u201d and \u201cattack.\u201d The DOJ also sought<\/a> to bring conspiracy charges against journalist Don Lemon, a former CNN host who was present at the protest, an effort rejected<\/a> by a federal magistrate judge.<\/p>\n \u201cDon Lemon himself has come out and said he knew exactly what was going to happen inside that facility,\u201d Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon told far-right influencer Benny Johnson during a podcast<\/a> appearance on Monday. \u201cHe went into the facility, and then he began \u2018committing journalism,\u2019 as if that\u2019s sort of a shield from being a part, an embedded part, of a criminal conspiracy. It isn\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n The Trump administration evidently hopes to make an example of Allen, Levy Armstrong, and Kelly: \u201cListen loud and clear: WE DO NOT TOLERATE ATTACKS ON PLACES OF WORSHIP,\u201d Bondi posted<\/a> on X on Thursday.<\/p>\n One of Trump\u2019s first actions as president was to overturn<\/a> a longstanding policy that restricted ICE enforcement at \u201csensitive areas,\u201d including places of worship.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n