Anti-ICE Agitators Targeting Parishioners Outside Cities Church for Second Straight Sunday
“‘You’re Asian, why are you hanging out with Nazis’ … basically calling her a race traitor in a way and saying that they’re going to come for her next.”
This is not exactly the kind of behavior that wins hearts and minds.
Nevertheless, barred by a police presence from entering Cities Church in St. Paul, Minnesota, after their grotesque January 18 storming of a worship service over the pastor’s alleged affiliation with ICE, agitators continue to harass parishioners from outside the building as they come and go.
BREAKING – Anti ICE agitators, led by failed CNN host Don Lemon, stormed a Minneapolis church this morning, halting services and holding members hostage because they believed the pastor was ICE affiliated.
“The whole point of it is to disrupt and make people uncomfortable.” pic.twitter.com/ddwPwpwV5E
— Right Angle News Network (@Rightanglenews) January 18, 2026
One regular attendee, Caleb Phillips, 21, told Fox News that for the second straight Sunday, agitators shouted insults and heckled parishioners as they arrived for the service and as they left.
Phillips considers their “hatred” a “spiritual battle” against the church, according to Fox. He noted, “It says in scripture that our battle is not against flesh and blood, but is against the spirit, the evil spiritual forces of the world. And I think that this is a situation where that is very much true.”
As Phillips and his girlfriend, who is Asian, left the Church the Sunday after the mob incursion, he said that anti-ICE agitators “hurled racial attacks” at her and accused her of “hanging out with Nazis.”
He compared leaving the warmth of the service and being confronted by these zealots to “stepping into an ice bath.”
“Just the safety and the peace and the joy that we were feeling in the church, in our worship of Jesus Christ, going out and seeing people who are spewing hatred towards us, it made me feel sad for them,” he explained.
Phillips told Fox they offered to pray with some of the least aggressive agitators.
We went up to them, and we said, ‘Hey, can we pray with you?’ And they said, ‘Yes’ … So, we laid our hands on their shoulders, and we prayed with them. We prayed for the peace of the Twin Cities. We prayed peace and blessings for them, because scripture says, ‘Bless those who curse you.’ And they were literally cursing at us. And we decided to bless them because that’s what scripture says.
As they walked away, a demonstrator “with a megaphone began berating them and singled out his girlfriend.”
She starts yelling at my girlfriend and insulting her on the basis of her race. She says, ‘You’re Asian, why are you hanging out with Nazis’ … basically calling her a race traitor in a way and saying that they’re going to come for her next.
I will admit, I felt a lot of anger in that moment, just with the fact that we had tried to put a blessing on them, and at least one of them still was spewing hatred towards us. And that was another moment where I kind of had to pull myself back and remind myself, this is a spiritual battle. What is happening right now it’s not about that woman who is shouting those terrible things at my wonderful, lovely girlfriend. It is about something deeper.
We’re not going to hate anyone. We’re going to love these cities, we’re going to love the people of our church, and we’re going to love those who hate us and pray for those who persecute us.
Asked by Fox about the ICE-affiliated pastor, Phillips replied, “We’re not going to shun our brother in Christ because his line of work isn’t popular right now.”
One reader rightly pointed out, “If someone can be arrested for praying outside of an abortion clinic, then these animals can be arrested for ‘protesting’ outside of a church.”
This episode underscores the Grand Canyon-sized hypocrisy of the Left: those claiming moral urgency resorted to intimidation, racial abuse, and harassment of worshippers engaged in peaceful religious practice. Far from advancing justice or persuasion, their conduct revealed a movement willing to trample basic decency and tolerance in pursuit of ideological conformity. Whatever one’s views on immigration policy or ICE, targeting parishioners as they pray, sing, and leave church does not elevate the debate — it degrades it. And it raises a troubling question about why such behavior is tolerated at all.
[Featured image via YouTube]
Elizabeth writes commentary for Legal Insurrection and The Washington Examiner. She is an academy fellow at The Heritage Foundation. Please follow Elizabeth on X or LinkedIn.
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Comments
they attacked nyc in 2001 they then took over that city as well as others chiraw mn etc etc
‘anti ice agitators’ is a neat way to say Democrat Party operatives.
“And it raises a troubling question about why such behavior is tolerated at all.” ??? Communist agenda: take down the family, take down the faith and take down patriotism, take over the schools and then the country. No mystery here.
why are these rioters not followed home and have people honk their horns ( no violence!) and show them that the reality us
no justice
no peace and quiet
You’re far, far kinder than me.
I hate to say this but now Christians are experiencing what us Jews have been going through for years. I’ve had slurs and all sorts of ugly remarks hurled at me leaving synagogue and my son’s Hebrew school, not to mention having bomb threats. It’s not convenient to have faith and gather as a community for worship. We don’t do it for that reason, and this country was founded to protect religious freedom, I say to those parisheneres, stay strong and keep gathering together, your light, connection and warmth is what they fear because all they have uniting them is hate. While hate is a powerful drug it only lasts as long as money, attention and temporarily aligned goals hold out. When that falters, it looks for another convenient target often within its own ranks.
Outside the US Christians are arrested, imprisoned, attacked, kidnapped, burned and murdered (some recent examples: China, Nigeria, North Korea). What is happing in the US is that now American Christians are starting to experience – albeit at a low level so far – how Christians around the world live. In world history the freedom Christians experienced in America and Europe is a rare luxury that seems to be coming to an end.
The Western hemisphere is mostly safe for Christians, Europe Australia Russia New Zealand are mostly safe. What isn’t are China, South Asia, Oceanic, much of Africa, and of course Muslim countries in general.
Too true, Recovering Lutheran. History has shown us that as the Church is persecuted, the Church flourishes and spreads. The Church’s response to persecution demonstrates the love, grace and life changing truth of the Gospel. I am praying that this spiritual battle results in more hearts and minds having an encounter with the Living God. What happens in this life is only important in so much as it allows Jesus followers to be His hands and feet and hopefully soften hearts and minds to be open to the prompting of the Spirit.
That encounter – one that changes hearts and minds – is also the only way we change things back to true freedom. If we don’t change the hearts and minds of the electorate, then there is no way to keep a free republic.
Keep gathering is right. Stand as The Light against the Darkness.
In modern America, the First Amendment is not considered to apply to non-Leftists.
Subotai Bahadur
IMO, the Trump Admin 2.0 is making the correct approach not to jump feet first into Minneapolis with the Insurrection Act. Despite the blatantly transparent provocations against the Federal immigration enforcement mission, riotous mob invading houses of worship, makeshift traffic control points set up by leftist militias and continued harassment of any/everyone not on ‘team Cray Cray’ ….the Trump WH is letting it play out for the moment. This increases the pressure locally in Minneapolis as local LEO and city services become strained and the overly naive veneer Minnesota Nice wears out the patience of Indy voters and normies. It also removes some of the spotlight from ICE allowing the multiple fraud investigations to operate and drip/drip new revelations into a less congested media space. Eventually if the leftists don’t tone it down the Trump WH will act forcefully and by allowing public sentiment to shift to at least a neutral stance on Federal intervention due to weeks/months of relentless lefty provocation far more people will be willing to adopt a position of ‘the leftist wokiestas had it coming’ when the hammer falls.
What you are saying would likely be true if the leftist media were reporting the behavior of the leftist goons. I don’t think most people are aware.
IMO you are giving too much ‘power’ to the legacy corporate media. The internet and social media has given everyone the ability to record and post content for the everyone else to see/hear. The alt/new media landscape for ‘news’ info is largely center/right populist with a strong libertarian streak grounded in common sense. Even if that wasn’t true the folks who are experiencing the leftist wokiesta nonsense in their communities know what’s happening and who’s responsible. Sure some luddite Boomers might get all their info from some network morning show, the view, a lefty newspaper and the evening news. That ain’t how the rest of us function especially Gen X and younger.
Frankly one under reported aspect of demographic change in the context of electoral power shift is the last of the Silent gen and leading edge Boomers dying off. The oldest boomers are 80 the youngest are 60. The demo 65+ was the most consistent, steadfast supporters of Biden and d/prog holding fast between 45%-50% approval from 2019 to theme of his term. Due to sheer size of their generational cohort that sets a solid floor of support for d/prog and as they die off that floor will develop holes.
I hope you are correct.
I knew the first invasion would happen again, just staying outside should be a crime.
Go to some Leftist place and start calling Leftists names and see how fast you get arrested.
Wrong. You will not be arrested for that, anywhere in the USA. You are completely free to protest anywhere you like, so long as you stay on public property, and don’t interfere with traffic, or with people being able to get in and out of the premises you’re protesting. It makes no difference whether it’s a church, a mosque, an abortion clinic, a gay club, or wherever it is that communists congregate.
Aren’t there restrictions on proximity to abortion clinics?
In some cities there are very small buffer zones, that are intended entirely to protect people going in and out from violence and intimidation, not from speech. That appears to be what happened at this church; the police kept the protesters just far enough away that they couldn’t use violence or intimidation, but close enough that they could use words effectively.
Any such zone that keeps protesters so far away from the people going in and out that they are unable to effectively communicate their message to them is unconstitutional and the courts strike it down.
they couldn’t use … intimidation
And I think “intimidation” is way too narrowly defined by the law, often.
Nope. Intimidation means the fear of physical violence. Someone who is shouting abuse at you from 50 feet away, with the police there to make sure he doesn’t come any closer, doesn’t put you in fear that he’s going to hit you.
Some of the folks that were at the capital protests could surely argue that point with you. Not all of them, but some of them for sure.
Nope. No one who was peacefully protesting on the street, where they had a right to be, was arrested. No one at all was arrested for anything they said, for any opinion they expressed, for any language they used.
There is obnoxious behavior and there is illegal behavior. What is described is more like obnoxious behavior. It is similar to the Westboro Baptist church demonstrations outside venues with their “God hates fags” chants. It is also like the neo-Nazis with torches yelling “the Jews will not replace us”.
There are different forms of sanctions for obnoxious behavior. It is social opprobrium. It is really the media that needs to apply this form of punishment. Unfortunately, the media and even Democrat politicians praise obnoxious behavior if they perceive it as giving their side more power. Universities have also been promoting this type if obnoxious harassment for years. They make it difficult for conservative views to be heard: banning speakers, charging outrageous security fees to prevent violence against conservative sponsored events; ignoring the destruction of conservative events through disruptive vile chanting; setting two vastly different standards of conduct for progressive students and conservative students.
There are rules covered in official codes of conduct of universities but they are superseded by the unwritten laws of woke beliefs. What is remarkable is the blindness of those in charge of enforcing the conduct code to their own outrageous biases.
I don’t think reason and logic are sufficient to straighten out this mess. There have to be consequences for the horrendous double standards.
No one in the USA has been arrested for praying outside a clinic. People have been arrested for blocking the entrance, for physically intimidating people going in and out, for actually invading the premises.
Some states have established very small buffer zones around the entrance to prevent such interference; the courts have said that such zones are constitutional only if they’re small enough that protesters are still able to communicate their message effectively to people going in and out, without physically interfering with them. Any zone that’s too big for that is unconstitutional. If memory serves me, 25 feet was upheld but 100 feet was struck down.
I think you’re wrong about it not happening here. A few instances of FACE Act arrests were very much about just being there and making people feel uncomfortable. I don’t remember if those instances ever resolved favorably for the protesters. (I do know some that were spoken of as if that was the case were also actual obstruction.)
Can you cite such a case? I don’t believe there are any such cases at all.
I don’t think they’re trying to do that. They’re more like the Phelps family, whose entire purpose seems to be to antagonize people. As the courts have said, the Phelpses have the right to demonstrate right outside fallen soldiers’ funerals, close enough for them to make sure everyone attending the funeral can hear exactly what they think of the deceased, and can only be kept from physically attacking people or blocking their way.
(My friend buzzsawmonkey has a theory that the Phelpses are being paid by the Democrats, and their actual purpose is to make people hate them, in the hope that enough voters are ignorant enough to believe that they’re somehow associated with Republicans, and thus be turned off from voting Republican. It makes as much sense as any other theory.)
They don’t need to be paid by Democrats. They’re already getting their pay from Satan.
(But that false flag theory has been around a long while. They are rotten people.)
The Phelps were Democrats. Not in good standing perhaps or maybe your theory is correct and it was a psyop by the Democrats.
That could also explain the continual stupid things that the City of Topeka did in regards to them since Topeka is a mostly Democrat city.
I believe that Japanese people are “Asian” and were in fact part of the Axis with the Nazis and Fascists. So the person asking that question is a multi-level idiot.
It’s also commonly believed that the Nazis persecuted black people, to the extent they had any in their grasp. This too is false. There were some black people in Germany, and while the Nazis didn’t like them they didn’t persecute them, and even allowed them to join the Party!
As for Asians, when the Jewish refugees who escaped Lithuania on the Sugihara visas arrived in Japan, the Japanese asked one of their leaders, the Amshinover Rebbe, why it was that the Germans hated Jews. His reply was that “They hate us because we’re Orientals”.
What the hell are you talking about? The Nazis absolutely persecuted black people. Hundreds of the so-called “Rhineland bastards” were sterilized. Under the Nuremberg laws black people were forbidden to marry Germans and were treated as subhumans. They were discriminated against at all levels of German society, were NOT allowed to join the party, and some ended up in concentration camps.
Sometimes your “wELl aKtuALLy” bullshit gets tiresome, especially when you don’t know what the hell you’re talking about.
Milhouse, they also allowed Jews to join the Party. So I don’t think it’s as simple as you make it out. (The whole racial purge thing was nuts in more than one way.)
(sigh) WHERE ARE YOU PEOPLE GETTING THIS SHIT FROM?!? They did not allow Jews to join the party. A few Nazis had Jewish ancestry, often hidden and/or old, but no, Jews weren’t allowed to join.
Seriously?! Jews were allowed to join the NSDAP?! Have you got a cite for that? I’ve never heard it and would be astonished at it.
I’m not talking about Jews on the down-low who infiltrated the party without its knowledge or consent. That of course happened. But did the party ever knowingly allow a Jew to join, as it did with black people?
Milhouse… THE NAZIS DIDN’T ALLOW BLACK PEOPLE EITHER.
Evil Otto, yes, they did allow black people to join. But as far as I know they never allowed Jews.
Anyone who is a Christian near by that church who isn’t busy elsewhere at that time should go there to add to the numbers unless the whole church is already full.
Show the protesters that they are not getting their way.
Pretty sure the FACE act doesn’t require you to be inside the church to be guilty of it. Let’s go, Bondi. Arrest ’em all!
No, it doesn’t require that, but it does require you to be blocking access. Shouting abuse from behind a police barrier isn’t and can’t be a FACE Act violation, or the act itself would be invalid.
Where’s the local and State police? I thought the last article said that they were going to start actually doing their jobs?
The police were right there, making sure people could get in and out of the church in safety, and keeping the protesters a safe distance away. Which is exactly their job.