3 people arrested after St. Paul church protest remain jailed

Mara H. Gottfried, Pioneer Press on Jan 23, 2026

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ST. PAUL, Minn. — Three people arrested Thursday after a protest in a St. Paul church remain jailed Friday.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security called them “ringleaders” in a Friday press release. They said it was Homeland Security Investigations and the FBI who arrested civil rights attorney Nekima Levy Armstrong, St. Paul School Board member Chauntyll Allen and social media personality William Kelly.

“Religious freedom is the bedrock of the United States — there is no First Amendment right to obstruct someone from practicing their religion,” DHS Secretary Kristi Noem said in the statement.

They are being charged federally with “conspiracy against rights.”

It is “unlawful for two or more persons to conspire to injure, oppress, threaten, or intimidate any person of any state … in the free exercise or enjoyment of any right or privilege secured to him/her by the Constitution or the laws of the United States,” the DHS press release said.

It’s not known when a judge will decide whether the three will remain in federal custody at the Sherburne County jail or be released, their attorneys said Friday morning.

“We have to wait for the court. There’s no other steps procedurally other than wait for the decision on the appeal,” said James Cook, who said he is representing Allen and Kelly.

On Sunday, protesters disrupted services inside Cities Church on Summit Avenue, near Snelling Avenue, in St. Paul. They said the acting field office director for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Minnesota serves as a pastor at the church.

Levy Armstrong and Allen were initially granted release by federal Magistrate Judge Douglas Micko on conditions, including no contact with potential victims or witnesses in the investigation, a stay-away order from Cities Church and no travel outside Minnesota without prior approval from their probation officers.

Prosecutors, however, made a motion to stay the release for further review, saying they might be flight risks, which Micko granted following appearances at the federal courthouse in downtown St. Paul on Thursday afternoon.

“There’s no way to really predict” how long a decision will take, Cook said Friday. “I’ve been telling people, ‘We’re in uncharted territory.’ … In my point of view, they’re being held unfairly.”

The Justice Department quickly opened a civil rights investigation after the group interrupted services by chanting “ICE out” and “Justice for Renee Good,” referring to the 37-year-old mother of three who was fatally shot by an ICE officer in Minneapolis earlier this month.

Attorney General Pam Bondi, in announcing the arrests on X (formerly Twitter) on Thursday, wrote: “Our nation was settled and founded by people fleeing religious persecution. Religious freedom is the bedrock of this country. We will protect our pastors. We will protect our churches. We will protect Americans of faith.”

But attorney Jordan Kushner, representing Levy Armstrong, said Thursday that Bondi and Noem had called for the arrests just to celebrate them on social media.

“This doesn’t happen in a legitimate prosecution,” Kushner said. “These are officials making a political decision, and purposely making a political spectacle and a political circus out of the court system for their own purposes.”

The charges filed in federal court remained under seal as of Friday morning.

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