America's Talking - First arrests made following St. Paul church protest, 'more to come'

Episode Date: January 24, 2026

(The Center Square) – Federal officials have made three arrests in connection with a protest that disrupted a Sunday morning church service in St. Paul. U.S. Attorney General Pamela Bondi made two of the announcements Thursday morning, with a third announced Thursday afternoon.Support this podcast: https://secure.anedot.com/franklin-news-foundation/ce052532-b1e4-41c4-945c-d7ce2f52c38a?source_code=xxxxxx Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Greetings, everyone, and welcome to America's Talking, powered by the Center Square. I'm Dan McAulb, executive editor of the Center Square Newswire Service. It was another crazy newsweek in Minnesota this week. Three arrests have been made so far in connection to the surprise protests that erupted during a St. Paul Church service last Sunday. Minnesota Governor Tim Walls, Attorney General Keith Ellison, Minneapolis, Jacob Fry, and others were subpoenaed by the U.S. Department of Justice to testify before a grand jury investigating a conspiracy to impede U.S. immigration and customs enforcement officers, and Vice President J.D. Vance visited the state,

where he criticized mainstream media and sometimes violent protesters. Joining me to discuss this is the Center Square reporter, Elise Aple, who has been covering much of the events in the state. Elise, let's start with the church protest and the arrests of three alleged organizers. You had an exclusive interview with one of the prisoners of the church. Tell us what the prisoner told you about what happened.

Yeah, so, like you said, another crazy week in the Twin Cities. So this is kind of, the week kind of kicked off with this protest at Citi's Church in St. Paul. So what kind of happened was the local activists found out that one of the pastors there at the church is actually involved with ICE, works with ICE. And so they kind of set up what some people labeled a clandestine mission. They weren't protesting outside and and came into the church. They actually came in before the church service started, just joined the congregation. Like, there were, they were normal congregants. And we were able to speak with a congregant that was there. And he kind of told us what it was like to be in the room when halfway through

the service, just all of these people that were in within the congregation just starts standing up and they started yelling at the pastor, yelling at the other congregants that were there at the church, accusing them of all sorts of things related to this pastor being affiliated with ICE. And so he said it was a very scary situation for the congregants. He described it as they felt like they were surrounded. So what eventually ended up happening was a lot of the families, because they have a lot of young families there at the church. A lot of them ended up leaving, taking the children out

because they were obviously very scared, crying in some situations. And so they ended up leaving. and some of the younger parishioners in the church ended up coming back and praying or talking with the protesters until police actually arrived to escort the protesters out. So he described it as a very scary situation. But yeah, that was really what kicked off the Minneapolis news cycle this week. And everything from that has been, you know, there was a lot of outcry, national outcry in the wake of that. and then we ended up with those three arrests yesterday.

So what did, I know U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi announced the arrest yesterday at various points throughout the day, and this was on Thursday, we're recording this on Friday. Just tell us about the arrest and what they're being accused of. Yeah, so there was a lot of talk kind of in the wake of the protests. President Trump even came out and said, you know, there needs to be repercussions for these protests. There is a right to protest, but not within churches. That's private property. And so what they ended up citing was some civil rights laws and the Face Act. And that actually prevents people from obstructing activities or services either at churches or actually interesting enough abortion clinics. So that was an act that former Democrat administrations like the Biden administration had used quite a lot to prosecute. pro-life activists outside of abortion clinics, but it hasn't really been used as much as in this church setting. So it'll be interesting to see how that kind of moves forward in the courts.

But yeah, like you said, there were three arrests kind of throughout the day on Thursday, and they've promised likely more to come. Separately, Governor Tim Walz, the mayor of Minneapolis, the state's Attorney General, and others have been subpoenaed to testify before. before a federal grand jury over their alleged provocation of these protests that sometimes grow violent to deter ICE officers from doing their jobs. Tell us about these subpoenas. Yeah, so that's been the really interesting thing. Kind of on the national stage, you know, there's a lot of Republicans that have been calling out the protesters, calling out the sometimes violent protests

against ICE that are happening in the Twin Cities. But then from their own local and state leadership, it's been very quiet. Or they've been actively going out of their way to also call out ICE and kind of, you know, what the federal government is saying and kind of instigating these riots or protests, depending on, you know, how violent they get. So that's been the really interesting thing is from these local and state Democrat officials and many, especially in Minneapolis, it voted nearly 90% for the Democrat socialist candidates. So very heavily Democrat.

So it's been really interesting kind of watching the divide there between the national forces that are, you know, largely Republican versus the state and local officials, which are largely Democrat and how they're responding to these protests. And finally, at least in the short time we have left, Vice President J.D. Vance visited Minneapolis Thursday, again, where he heavily criticized media coverage of the ICE operations and the ICE protests there. And he said it's okay if you peacefully protest, but once you get violent, federal law enforcement is going to come after you. Just tell us about that. Yeah, so he appeared. It was a very short appearance, basically. Landa's playing, had a press conference and kind of. kind of took off again. But he decided to go to Minneapolis to kind of address the protests and

what he said to kind of bring law and order back to the city. Now, I'm not quite sure, you know, how the press conference really helped with the law and orders might have that, but he did end up addressing. He had ICE officials all behind, standing behind him. And he did. He accused the mainstream media of sharing a lot of lies about what the ICE officials are there and trying to do. And he talked about the protests. And he did. He said that you do, as American citizens, you have the right to protest, but they cannot be violent.

And he said that that is why that they've really surged these federal officials, surge the ICE forces to the cities because of all the backlash that they've received. He said that it is, you know, ICE officials are being assaulted almost on a daily basis. And so they've really had to search even more forces to the city to kind of help the officials as they try to, you know, enforce these immigration laws. So it was really interesting. He did not end up, you know, meeting with any local officials. And so it'll be interesting to see how that actually kind of affects the law enforcement on the street. but it was definitely a move from the administration to kind of address the situation.

Police, thank you for joining us today. Listeners can keep up with all of the developments in Minnesota and elsewhere across the country at thecentersquare.com.