Cities Church Anti-ICE Protest Prosecutions
On January 18, 2026, demonstrators gathered at Cities Church in St. Paul, Minnesota — whose pastor is a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement official — to protest the agency's actions. In the weeks that followed, the U.S. Justice Department built an escalating federal prosecution around that protest, charging participants and the journalists who covered it under place-of-worship civil-rights statutes, including the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act of 1994, a law originally enacted to protect access to abortion clinics. A federal grand jury first indicted independent journalist Georgia Fort and former CNN anchor Don Lemon on January 30; a February 27 superseding indictment added 30 more defendants, bringing the total to 39, even though a magistrate judge had already found no probable cause to arrest several of them. This episode collects The Standing's entries on that single, expanding prosecution, in which the criminal law was turned on protest and the press alike.
Documented in this episode (2)
Federal grand jury indicts independent journalist Georgia Fort and former CNN anchor Don Lemon under FACE Act for covering anti-ICE church protest
On January 30, 2026, federal agents arrested independent journalist Georgia Fort and former CNN anchor Don Lemon following an anti-ICE protest at Cities Church in St. Paul, Minnesota, where a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement official serves as pastor. A federal grand jury in Minnesota indicted both on charges of "conspiracy against right of religious freedom at place of worship" under the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act of 1994. Both journalists have maintained they were reporting on the protest, not participating in it. As of mid-May 2026, Fort reports that the legal constraints of the pending prosecution have functionally silenced significant portions of her newsgathering.
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.