A Sunday service at Cities Church in St. Paul was violently interrupted when anti-ICE agitators barged into worship, chanting and livestreaming as congregants fled in shock and anger. This was not a local scuffle — it was a deliberate, coordinated assault on a house of worship that federal officials are now treating as more than mere political theater.
Video and eyewitness accounts show former CNN host Don Lemon embedded with the protesters as the disruption unfolded, filming the chaos and later defending his presence as journalism. Whether you like Lemon or loathe him, pretending that joining a mob to ambush a church is protected reporting is nonsense and a disgrace to real journalists.
The Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, led by Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon, has publicly warned that houses of worship are protected spaces and that participants in this kind of stunt are “on notice” of potential federal consequences. This is the right response from a department that should be focused on enforcing law and order instead of coddling mob tactics dressed up as activism.
Make no mistake: what we watched was the latest expression of a broader left-wing contempt for private life and religious liberty. When mob rule becomes a tactic and media personalities embed with the rioters, ordinary citizens lose more than a service — they lose the peace and sanctity that churches and synagogues provide to communities.
Don Lemon’s posture as a self-styled truth-seeker falls apart when you examine the tape. If you show up with a camera as part of a coordinated plan to ambush worshippers, you should not be surprised when federal investigators treat you like somebody who aided or abetted a criminal disruption rather than a neutral observer.
Minnesota’s political culture didn’t help. Governor Tim Walz’s past rhetoric about ICE — including comments that Republican critics said amounted to calling federal agents a “modern-day Gestapo” — has been seized upon by opponents who argue such language puts our brave federal officers at risk. Leaders who inflame rather than calm public fury share responsibility for the environment that encourages these lawless blitzes.
Patriots who respect the rule of law should applaud the DOJ for signaling it will not tolerate churches turned into staging grounds for political intimidation. Harmeet Dhillon and federal prosecutors should follow through with every lawful tool to hold organizers and high-profile enablers accountable — and the press should stop pretending that turning holy ground into a protest spectacle is something to be admired.
