The Trump administration 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—a 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’s racial violence.
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.)
An affidavit filed in support of the government’s case by a special agent with ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) also claims that the protesters sought to violate the “free exercise of religion at a place of religious worship secured by the FACE Act,” 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.
Videos showed the group of activists disrupting the St. Paul church service with chants of “ICE out” and “Justice for Renee Good,” a reference to the 37-year-old mother of three who was fatally shot by an ICE agent 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 found that the church pastor’s personal information matches that of the acting director of the ICE St. Paul field office, and that Easterwood “appeared alongside DHS Secretary Kristi Noem at a Minneapolis press conference last October.”
The HSI agent’s affidavit designates Easterwood as “Victim 1.” The document also lists several chants made by “agitators” that “terrorized the parishioners,” including “this is what community looks like” and “hands up, don’t shoot.” (According to the affidavit, one churchgoer only heard the word “shoot” and therefore feared the protesters could have guns.) The agent also characterizes Good’s death as “an officer-involved shooting as a result of her assault on an immigration officer.”
A press release published by DHS on Friday called the three arrested activists “ringleaders” of a “church riot” and alleged that their actions amounted to an “attack on churchgoers’ religious freedom.” But a legal filing from Levy Armstrong’s lawyer arguing for his client’s pretrial release notes that Levy Armstrong herself is a Christian reverend.
“Contrary 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,” her lawyer wrote. “It was a non-violent protest, which under a normal government, would not lead to criminal charges, much less federal felony charges.” All three organizers were released from federal custody on Friday.
The extraordinary decision to charge the protesters with felony federal conspiracy against civil rights comes after footage of the event sparked days of viral outrage among Trump’s supporters, with right-wing websites calling the protest a “mob,” “riot,” and “attack.” The DOJ also sought to bring conspiracy charges against journalist Don Lemon, a former CNN host who was present at the protest, an effort rejected by a federal magistrate judge.
“Don Lemon himself has come out and said he knew exactly what was going to happen inside that facility,” Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon told far-right influencer Benny Johnson during a podcast appearance on Monday. “He went into the facility, and then he began ‘committing journalism,’ as if that’s sort of a shield from being a part, an embedded part, of a criminal conspiracy. It isn’t.”
The Trump administration evidently hopes to make an example of Allen, Levy Armstrong, and Kelly: “Listen loud and clear: WE DO NOT TOLERATE ATTACKS ON PLACES OF WORSHIP,” Bondi posted on X on Thursday.
One of Trump’s first actions as president was to overturn a longstanding policy that restricted ICE enforcement at “sensitive areas,” including places of worship.
