President Donald Trump on Tuesday called for harsh penalties against the anti-ICE activists who stormed a Minnesota church service, saying they should be jailed or deported for their “insurrectionist” behavior.
“These people are professionals! No person acts the way they act,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post. “They are highly trained to scream, rant, and rave, like lunatics, in a certain manner, just like they are doing. They are troublemakers who should be thrown in jail, or thrown out of the Country.”
The protest, which took place during a Sunday morning service at Cities Church in St. Paul, was organized by the Racial Justice Network and Black Lives Matter Twin Cities. Demonstrators shouted slogans like “Justice for Renee Good,” “Hands up, don’t shoot,” and “ICE out of Minnesota.” Former CNN host Don Lemon embedded himself with the protest group and livestreamed the entire event.
The church was targeted because one of its pastors reportedly works for Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Among those identified at the protest was William Kelly, a well-known activist who has previously disrupted services at Secretary of War Pete Hegseth’s church in Washington, D.C.
Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon confirmed Monday that criminal charges are in the works. Dhillon said her department is examining possible violations of the FACE Act and the Ku Klux Klan Act, both of which carry serious penalties.
“I see various crimes that have occurred,” Dhillon said in an interview with conservative podcaster Benny Johnson. “Exactly what they are I’m not going to flag, but the FACE Act has been mentioned as one of the predicates.”
She added that prosecutors under the Biden administration had used the same statutes to go after pro-life protesters, and that similar legal tools could now be applied to those responsible for the church disruption.
“You can have your protest in a park, you can have a march, you can get a permit for a large gathering,” Dhillon said. “But you can’t just go wherever you want and tear things up and disrupt. That’s what these people did. And so now, people are afraid to go to church. And that is an absolute disgrace in this country.”
Dhillon told The Daily Wire that two federal prosecutors had been dispatched to Minnesota to handle the case. She also confirmed that Don Lemon could be included in any criminal conspiracy charges if it’s shown that he coordinated with the protesters beforehand.
The FACE Act protects the right of Americans to worship without interference or intimidation. According to Dhillon, that right was clearly violated.
The post Trump: Minnesota Church Protesters Should Be Jailed Or ‘Thrown Out Of The Country’ appeared first on Real News Now.
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