The Standing

A daily, non-partisan record of US democratic norms — and the events that erode them.

    DOJ charges 30 more over anti-ICE Minnesota church protest, bringing total to 39 defendants

    On February 27, 2026, the U.S. Justice Department unsealed a superseding indictment in the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota charging 30 additional people — bringing the total to 39 — over the January 18 anti-ICE protest at Cities Church in St. Paul. All 39 are charged under place-of-worship civil-rights statutes, including the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act, with conspiring to interfere with and interfering with the free exercise of religion; the defendants include independent journalists Don Lemon and Georgia Fort, who say they were covering the protest as reporters. Attorney General Pam Bondi announced that 25 of the 30 newly charged had been arrested, even though a magistrate judge had earlier found no probable cause to arrest several defendants, including the journalists.

    Part of: Cities Church Anti-ICE Protest Prosecutions

    Jurisdiction
    federal
    Location
    St. Paul, Minnesota

    Abuses documented

    Actors

    • Trump Administration
    • U.S. Department of Justice
    • Pam Bondi

    Why we recorded this

    The right to protest and the right to report on a protest are core First Amendment freedoms, and the criminal law is not supposed to be a tool for punishing either. Here the government used statutes meant to protect access to houses of worship to charge dozens of people — including two journalists — over an anti-ICE demonstration, after a magistrate judge had already found no probable cause to arrest several of them. When prosecutors expand a single case to 39 defendants and apply a law in a way it has never been used before, the charge itself becomes the punishment: people learn that showing up to protest, or to cover one, can carry the risk of a federal indictment. We recorded this because that chilling effect operates whether or not the charges ever hold up in court.

    Sources

    1. DOJ charging 30 more people for roles in anti-ICE protest at Minnesota church — CBS News primary accessed June 12, 2026
    2. Justice Department indicts 30 more in anti-ICE church protest in Minnesota — NBC News primary accessed June 12, 2026
    3. Minnesota ICE/Cities Church superseding indictment — The New York Times secondary accessed June 12, 2026

    See also