MINNEAPOLIS — Protesters interrupted a Sunday church service in St. Paul, Minnesota, over a pastor’s apparent work as an Immigration and Customs Enforcement official, escalating tensions between Minnesota residents and the Trump administration after an immigration agent shot and killed a woman in Minneapolis.

Videos posted on social media show protesters chanting at the Cities Church — including calls for “ICE out” — and bringing the service to a halt. Congregants are seen moving to leave the church as the chants continue and worship music begins to play.

The protest at the church was organized by Nekima Levy Armstrong, a civil rights lawyer. She said she wanted to draw attention to a church leader, David Easterwood, who also appears to be the acting director of ICE’s field office for enforcement and removal operations in St. Paul and who is named in a lawsuit challenging aggressive enforcement tactics.

The church, Easterwood and Jonathan Parnell, the lead pastor leading service Sunday, did not immediately respond to calls or requests for comment. It was unclear whether Easterwood was present in the church during the protest Sunday.

The Justice Department said it was investigating the event, with officials pointing to a 1994 law that bars using or threatening force and physical obstruction to interfere or intimidate someone worshipping at a religious institution.

Attorney General Pam Bondi, who said she spoke with a pastor at the church late Sunday, said “attacks against law enforcement and the intimidation of Christians are being met with the full force of federal law.”

The Trump administration has moved to aggressively investigate and curb protests against immigration enforcement in Minnesota. Anger flared in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area this month after Jonathan Ross, an immigration agent, shot and killed Renee Good, a Minneapolis woman.

There have been clashes between federal agents and protesters, though a judge recently imposed restrictions on the agents’ actions. And federal authorities have begun criminal investigations into Gov. Tim Walz and Mayor Jacob Frey of Minneapolis, both Democrats who have been sharply critical of the immigration enforcement surge.

The unrest prompted at least two St. Paul hotels to stop accepting bookings and close down Sunday, citing “elevated safety and security concerns.” Guests were offered refunds or help obtaining accommodations at other hotels.

Organizer Explains

Levy Armstrong, the protest organizer, said that in the lawsuit filed this month against ICE’s tactics, she saw that Easterwood was named as a defendant for overseeing “a racial profiling campaign of massive scale and with devastating consequences,” and connected him with the church. She compared Easterwood’s appearance in an October news conference alongside Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem with a sermon he delivered at the church that was posted to YouTube.

Levy Armstrong said she circulated her plan for interrupting the service on social media as a way to raise awareness among the congregation of Easterwood’s involvement in the immigration crackdown.

“To have someone in the role of a pastor also being in that role as an overseer is unconscionable,” she said. She said that Jesus “called out religious leaders for their hypocrisy.”

“That’s part of our duty as Christians,” she added.

Parnell, speaking to former CNN anchor Don Lemon during the Sunday protest, said it was “shameful to interrupt a public gathering of Christians in worship.”

Kevin Ezell, president of the North American Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention, to which the church belongs, said in a statement that “what occurred was not protest; it was lawless harassment.”

Elsewhere in the city, mourners Monday were continuing to mark Good’s death, adding signs and flowers to heaps of flags and trinkets that were covered in ice overnight at the intersection near where she was shot.

Rick Kelley, 47, said he traveled to Minneapolis from Cleveland on Sunday to join the protests and made the memorial his first stop Monday morning. It felt meaningful, he said, particularly on a federal holiday that honors the life and legacy of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

“We read about struggles in the past, but clearly, struggles are ongoing in many ways, and so is organizing,” Kelley said, warming his hands by a small fire crackling near the memorial. “It seems resonant, especially today.”

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This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

By Lauren McCarthy, Maia Coleman and Emily Cochrane/Jamie Kelter Davis
c. 2026 The New York Times Company