{"id":52924,"date":"2026-01-22T01:34:00","date_gmt":"2026-01-22T07:34:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=52924"},"modified":"2026-01-22T06:19:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-22T12:19:07","slug":"anti-ice-minnesota-church-protester-denies-protesters-rushed-the-service-despite-previous-comments","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=52924","title":{"rendered":"Anti-ICE Minnesota church protester denies protesters ‘rushed’ the service despite previous comments"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Nekima Levy Armstrong, one of the organizers of the storming of a Minnesota church<\/u><\/a> to protest U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on Sunday, denied that she and her group tried to “rush” the church on CNN, despite previous comments suggesting otherwise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Armstrong appeared on CNN’s “Erin Burnett OutFront” Wednesday when she was asked about whether the Justice Department had contacted her since threatening a crackdown on the protesters<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Armstrong said that she had not been contacted by the Justice Department, despite media attention, but that she wanted to “correct” the record on her protest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nekima Levy Armstrong, a civil rights lawyer and activist, led an anti-ICE protest into a Minnesota church on Sunday. (Chris Juhn\/Anadolu via Getty Images)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We did not rush into that church,” Armstrong said. “We actually went and sat down and participated in the service. And after the pastor prayed, that is when I stood up and asked him a question in response to his prayer. And then he responded to me. And then I proceeded to ask him about Pastor David Easterwood and how is it possible for him to serve as both a pastor and the director of ICE for Minnesota?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She continued, “And instead of responding to me, as soon as I said the name David Easterwood, the pastor said, ‘shame, shame.’ And that is when I led us in chants ‘Justice for Renee Good’ and \u2018Hands up, don\u2019t shoot.’ So I want to clarify that we didn’t rush in. We didn’t bust in. We were a part of the service until I got up and posed that question to the pastor.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Though Armstrong claimed that her group did not “rush” into the church, she previously told former CNN host Don Lemon<\/a> ahead of the protest that they were planning to “disrupt business as usual.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cities Church is seen in St. Paul, where activists shut down a service, claiming the pastor was also working as an ICE agent, Jan. 19, 2026 in St. Paul, Minnesota. (AP Photo\/Angelina Katsanis)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“This is Operation Pull Up, more of a clandestine operation. We show up somewhere that is a key location. They don’t expect us to come there, and then we disrupt business as usual. So that’s what we’re about to go do right now. We’ve had a lot of success with the times we have done Operation Pull Up,” Armstrong told Lemon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In another comment, she told Lemon, “They cannot pretend to be a house of God while harboring someone who is directing ICE agents to wreak havoc upon our community and who killed Renee Good, who almost killed a 6-month-old baby. Enough is enough.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before the Sunday service disruption, Armstrong caused controversy through her far-left views and activism. She has also been a key organizer of the boycotts against Target over its decision to scale back its diversity, equity and inclusion programs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nekima Levy Armstrong previously told Don Lemon that her group was planning to “disrupt business as usual” prior to storming the church. (David Joles\/Star Tribune via Getty Images; Angelina Katsanis\/AP Photo)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Armstrong has also raked in over $1 million<\/a> during six years leading a Minneapolis civil rights nonprofit that addresses anti-poverty issues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fox News Digital<\/a> reached out to Armstrong for comment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

foxnews<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Nekima Levy Armstrong, one of the organizers of the storming of a Minnesota church to protest U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on Sunday, denied that she and her group tried to “rush” the church on CNN, despite previous comments suggesting otherwise. Armstrong appeared on CNN’s “Erin Burnett OutFront” Wednesday when she was asked about whether the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":52925,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1154],"tags":[2223,1418,1196],"class_list":["post-52924","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-trending","tag-church","tag-ice","tag-minnesota"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52924","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=52924"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52924\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":52926,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52924\/revisions\/52926"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/52925"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=52924"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=52924"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=52924"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}