Federal authorities have arrested the woman who led an anti-ICE mob into a Minnesota church last week.
Nekima Levy Armstrong is facing charges related to violating the FACE Act, which prohibits interfering with the exercise of religion at a place of worship.
“Minutes ago at my direction, HSI and FBI agents executed an arrest in Minnesota. So far, we have arrested Nekima Levy Armstrong, who allegedly played a key role in organizing the coordinated attack on Cities Church in St. Paul, Minnesota,” Attorney General Pam Bondi wrote in a post on X.
“We will share more updates as they become available. Listen loud and clear: WE DO NOT TOLERATE ATTACKS ON PLACES OF WORSHIP,” she added.
Armstrong led a group into the Cities Church in St. Paul on Sunday, believing that one of the church’s pastors works for Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Dozens of demonstrators interrupted the service shouting, “ICE out” and “Justice for Renee Good.”
Armstrong is a civil rights lawyer and “scholar-activist,” according to her website. She previously played a key role in organizing boycotts against Target over its decision to walk back its diversity, equity, and inclusion programs, according to Fox News.
Former CNN anchor Don Lemon, who has received legal threats from the Trump administration over his own involvement in the protest, said during his livestream coverage of the protest that, “It’s Nekima Armstrong, she’s been doing this since George Floyd, Daunte Wright and others, where they surprise people, catch them off-guard and hold them to account.”
He described the demonstrators as “resistance protesters” and said, “They’re planning an operation we’re going to follow them on. I can’t tell you exactly what they’re doing, but it’s called Operation Pull-Up.”
DOJ officials are looking into whether other protesters violated the FACE Act and the Ku Klux Klan Act. The latter act makes it a federal crime for individuals to deny citizens their civil rights.
Facing legal threats from the Trump administration, Lemon now insists he had “no affiliation” with the activists responsible for disrupting the church service.
“I had no affiliations with that organization. I didn’t even know they were going to this church until we followed them. We were there chronicling protests,” Lemon said, contradicting the statement he made on his live stream. “Once the protest started in the church, we did an act of journalism, which was report on it and talk to the people who were involved, which included the pastor, members of the church, and members of the organization. That’s it.”
However, despite Lemon’s protestations, Deputy Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon has suggested that his involvement was illegal.
“A house of worship is not a public forum for your protest!” Dhillon wrote on X. “It is a space protected from exactly such acts by federal criminal and civil laws! Nor does the First Amendment protect your pseudo journalism of disrupting a prayer service.”
“You are on notice,” she added.