On Sunday, January 18, worshippers at Cities Church in St. Paul were interrupted when a group of anti-ICE protesters burst into the sanctuary mid-service, chanting “ICE out” and “Justice for Renee Good” while filming live on camera. Former CNN anchor Don Lemon was on the scene livestreaming and conducting interviews with participants as the disruption unfolded, leaving parishioners shaken and services broken up.
Organizers of the action included longtime activist Nekima Levy Armstrong and others who insisted the protest was targeting an alleged link between a church leader and federal immigration enforcement. Congregants report the intruders refused to engage in a private conversation or negotiate and instead stayed inside for roughly 45 minutes, making clear this was an ambush meant to intimidate rather than a civil discussion.
The videos show frightened families and children being comforted as the mob blew whistles and shouted while police largely stood by outside the building. Conservatives and many parishioners rightly saw the incident as not merely rude but as a possible federal violation under laws designed to protect houses of worship from exactly this kind of targeted harassment.
Federal authorities have reportedly opened a Civil Rights Division review to determine whether the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances statute and other protections were violated by storming a service and intimidating worshippers. That the Department of Justice is even examining this proves how far the left and its media enablers are willing to go to weaponize protest and silence religious Americans.
Let’s be blunt: having a cable pundit cheerlead and narrate as an organized mob terrorizes Christians in their house of worship is not journalism — it’s complicity. Don Lemon and his allies didn’t passively report a story; they trafficked in spectacle, amplifying a calculated assault on worship that would have been condemned without pause if the targets were anyone else.
This is the inevitable result of a media class that treats any trespass by the left as moral performance and any conservative grief as fair game. Patriots should not only be outraged but organized: demand accountability, insist that prosecutors enforce the law equally, and never accept the normalization of church intimidation as a tactic in American politics.
If authorities allow this to stand without consequence, it will signal to every radical that invading sanctuaries, disrupting families, and weaponizing grief for clicks is an acceptable pathway to political gain. The time for complacency is over — defend your churches, support pastors who refuse to be bullied, and vote against the parties and pundits who cheer on the chaos.
