Activists interrupt Sunday church service, say pastor works for ICE

Protesters disrupted a St. Paul church service on Sunday after activists determined one of the pastors works as the acting director of ICE’s field office in St. Paul.

David Easterwood, a pastor at Cities Church in St. Paul, is named in a pending class action lawsuit filed by the ACLU of Minnesota for aggressive tactics used by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

When activists discovered Easterwood is a local pastor, they decided to mobilize, they said.

“This man is a wolf in sheep’s clothing, masquerading as a pastor,” said Nekima Levy Armstrong, a local attorney, activist and reverend.

Easterwood was not leading Sunday’s service. Lead pastor Jonathan Parnell was confronted by the activists. In a video of the protest, Parnell can be heard telling activists, “Shame on you.”

Messages left with Parnell were not returned Sunday. Attempts to reach Easterwood also were not successful Sunday.

The federal government announced an investigation of possible criminal violations.

“The [Civil Rights’ division] is investigating the potential violations of the federal FACE Act by these people desecrating a house of worship and interfering with Christian worshippers,” Dhillon’s post on X read, adding in a later tweet that officials are “investigating potential criminal violations of federal law.”

The Department of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement added on social media: “Agitators aren’t just targeting our officers. Now they’re targeting churches, too.”

The agency said Gov. Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey are responsible for “whipping these mobs into a frenzy and then allowing them to run rampant.”

Easterwood spoke at a news conference with Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem in October. He said he oversees ICE’s enforcement removal operations (ERO) for Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, North Dakota and South Dakota.

“The men and women of the ERO St. Paul embody the highest standards of professionalism, integrity and dedication,” Easterwood said, at the time. “Every day they face complex challenges with determination and resolve, ensuring the safety of our communities and the enforcement of our nation’s immigration laws.”

Easterwood is named in the ACLU lawsuit filed in December that alleges ICE agents are racial profiling and arresting people for immigration enforcement without warrants or probable cause, “outrageously including U.S. citizens,” the lawsuit states.

A federal judge has barred ICE agents from “retaliating” against protesters in Minnesota as the lawsuit is pending. Armstrong said she is not sure how much of the Cities Church congregation knew Easterwood was working for ICE.

“For me, it registered with his name being in that lawsuit, researching him, seeing him at a press conference with Kristi Noem ... and then seeing him listed as a pastor of the church, finding a sermon online," she said. “As soon as I realized the dual roles that he played, I reached out to other Black women organizers and asked them if they would help me pull an action together.”

Local independent journalist Georgia Fort and former CNN host Don Lemon were looped ahead of the protest and reported from the scene in St. Paul. Armstrong said she stood up from the pew to address Pastor Parnell and said as soon as she said Easterwood’s name “he didn’t deny it, he didn’t say anything. And one of the members was like, well, he’s [Easterwood] not here today. I’m like, that has nothing to do with the concerns that we’re raising.”

Armstrong said given that this is the time of honoring Martin Luther King Jr., “it was very fitting for us to disrupt business as usual and to remind them about their own humanity.” Activists in the pews, including Black Lives Matter Minnesota, chanted “justice for Renee Good,” as they stood up in the middle of Parnell’s sermon. Some congregation members began to leave during the demonstration.