St. Paul church considering legal action over protest
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A St. Paul church says it’s considering its legal options after protesters disrupted its service on Sunday.
About three dozen people showed up at Cities Church and chanted “ICE out” and “Renee Good,” after learning one of its pastors, David Easterwood, leads the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement field office in St. Paul.
The office oversees immigration enforcement in Minnesota and four neighboring states, and is involved in the federal enforcement surge marked by an agent shooting and killing Renee Macklin Good, unlawful arrests and actions against protesters. A federal judge has called “an ongoing, persistent pattern of Defendants’ chilling conduct.”
In a statement on the church’s website, lead pastor Jonathan Parnell calls those protesting Easterwood on Sunday “agitators” and alleges they “accosted members of our congregation, frightened children, and created a scene marked by intimidation and threat.”
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“Such conduct is shameful, unlawful, and will not be tolerated,” the statement continues. “Invading a church service to disrupt the worship of Jesus — or any other act of worship — is protected by neither the Christian Scriptures nor the laws of this nation.”
Parnell, who has not responded to an MPR News interview request, also calls for local, state and national leaders to protect churches as places of peace. He says he’s exploring next steps with legal counsel.
The Department of Justice has already opened a civil rights investigation into the protest and says arrests are coming. In an MPR News interview, media and law expert Jane Kirtley said the church could have legal recourse at the state level and that federal charges could be excessive.
“This is a great example of what I would characterize as overkill, in the sense that here in Minnesota, we have criminal laws — misdemeanors, for the most part — dealing with trespass and disrupting things in facilities that are not generally open to the public, which would certainly suffice if the church wished to make a complaint along those lines.”
Parnell’s statement comes as other faith leaders in the state call for changes in immigration enforcement.
Faith leaders call out DHS tactics
In a Wall Street Journal op-ed Tuesday, Twin Cities Archbishop Bernard Hebda called the current environment around immigration enforcement “untenable,” and called for Congress to enact comprehensive immigration reform.
Winona-Rochester Bishop Robert Barron on social media Sunday called on ICE to pare back its enforcement and focus on undocumented immigrants who have committed serious crimes. He also called on politicians and protesters to cool their actions and rhetoric against ICE.
Meanwhile, dozens of Minnesota clergy members are preparing to participate in an anti-ICE protest and march Friday. Local labor unions are organizing what they are calling a “Day of Truth and Freedom,” urging everyone to stay home from school and work and avoid shopping. Several businesses have already pledged to close up for the day.
Local faith leaders said they expect nearly 1,000 clergy members from across the country to join Friday’s march.
They say they’re worried about the toll the enforcement surge is taking on their parishioners. Pastor James Erlandson of Lutheran Church of the Redeemer in St Paul said some have also had to confront ICE agents who were staging operations in church parking lots.
Erlandson said he has not heard of arrests inside of churches, after the Trump Administration reversed a longstanding practice of protecting churches from enforcement activity.
On the disruption in services at Cities Church on Sunday, Erlandson said he believes the protesters’ actions came from a place of trying to make their city safer.
“You know, as a clergy, that wouldn't be my first choice of an action, but I'm not going to condemn them for it, too,” he said. “I think this Department of Justice should investigate their own agents in ICE, rather than this one incident. There's plenty of things to investigate, including the officer that shot Renee Good.”
Listen Thursday: People of faith are divided on how to respond to moral and legal dilemmas raised by immigration enforcement and protests. At 9 a.m. on MPR News radio, guest host Catharine Richert explores what happens when ICE and religion collide.
