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The U.S. Department of Justice said Sunday it is investigating a group of protesters in Minnesota who disrupted services at a church where a local official with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement apparently serves as a pastor.<\/p>\n
A livestreamed video posted on the Facebook page of Black Lives Matter Minnesota, one of the protest\u2019s organizers, shows a group of people interrupting services at the Cities Church in St. Paul by chanting \u201cICE out\u201d and \u201cJustice for Renee Good.\u201d The\u00a037-year-old mother of three\u00a0was fatally shot by an ICE agent in Minneapolis earlier this month amid a surge in federal immigration enforcement activities.<\/p>\n
The protesters allege that one of the church\u2019s pastors \u2014 David Easterwood \u2014 also leads the local ICE field office overseeing the operations that have involved\u00a0violent tactics\u00a0and\u00a0illegal arrests.<\/p>\n
U.S. Department of Justice Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon said her agency is investigating federal civil rights violations \u201cby these people desecrating a house of worship and interfering with Christian worshippers.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cA house of worship is not a public forum for your protest! It is a space protected from exactly such acts by federal criminal and civil laws!\u201d she said on social media.<\/p>\n
Attorney General Pam Bondi also weighed in on social media, saying that any violations of federal law would be prosecuted.<\/p>\n
Nekima Levy Armstrong, who participated in the protest and leads the local grassroots civil rights organization Racial Justice Network, dismissed the potential DOJ investigation as a sham and a distraction from federal agents\u2019 actions in Minneapolis-St. Paul.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you think about the federal government unleashing barbaric ICE agents upon our community and all the harm that they have caused, to have someone serving as a pastor who oversees these ICE agents, is almost unfathomable to me,\u201d said Armstrong, who added she is an ordained reverend. \u201cIf people are more concerned about someone coming to a church on a Sunday and disrupting business as usual than they are about the atrocities that we are experiencing in our community, then they need to check their theology and the need to check their hearts.\u201d<\/p>\n
The website of St. Paul-based Cities Church lists David Easterwood as a pastor, and his personal information appears to match that of the David Easterwood identified in court filings as the acting director of the ICE St. Paul field office. Easterwood appeared alongside DHS Secretary Kristi Noem at a\u00a0Minneapolis press conference\u00a0last October.<\/p>\n
Cities Church did not respond to a phone call or emailed request for comment Sunday evening, and Easterwood\u2019s personal contact information could not immediately be located.<\/p>\n
Easterwood did not lead the part of the service that was livestreamed, and it was unclear if he was present at the church Sunday.<\/p>\n
In a Jan. 5 court filing, Easterwood defended ICE\u2019s tactics in Minnesota such as swapping license plates and\u00a0spraying protesters with chemical irritants. He wrote that federal agents were experiencing increased threats and aggression and crowd control devices like flash-bang grenades were important to protect against violent attacks. He testified that he was unaware of agents \u201cknowingly targeting or retaliating against peaceful protesters or legal observers with less lethal munitions and\/or crowd control devices.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAgitators aren\u2019t just targeting our officers. Now they\u2019re targeting churches, too,\u201d the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency stated. \u201cThey\u2019re going from hotel to hotel, church to church, hunting for federal law enforcement who are risking their lives to protect Americans.\u201d<\/p>\n
Black Lives Matter Minnesota co-founder Monique Cullars-Doty said that the DOJ\u2019s prosecution was misguided.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you got a head \u2014 a leader in a church \u2014 that is leading and orchestrating ICE raids, my God, what has the world come to?\u201d Cullars-Doty said. \u201cWe can\u2019t sit back idly and watch people go and be led astray.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
#curious #case #ICE #pastor #Minnesota #protesters #disrupt #church #services #DOJ #launches #investigation<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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