By A Sunday morning worship service at Cities Church was disrupted on January 18, 2026, when a group of anti-ICE demonstrators entered the sanctuary mid-service, chanting slogans and interrupting prayers amid mounting unrest tied to federal immigration enforcement in the Twin Cities.
I didn’t really want to watch this video but finally viewed it all just now. We really need to require our liberal friends and relatives to view it. It’s so terrible.
— SteveAustinWI (@SteveAustinWI) January 19, 2026
The incident unfolded as former CNN anchor Don Lemon, now operating as an independent broadcaster, livestreamed portions of the protest on YouTube from inside the church. Some critics, including Nicki Minaj, have claimed that Lemon helped organize the attack and have called for his arrest. In the footage, demonstrators can be heard chanting “Hands up, don’t shoot” and “ICE out” as they moved through the sanctuary, disrupting the opening prayer and halting the service and frightening children.
NEW: Don Lemon tries lecturing a pastor on the First Amendment after a mob of far leftists stormed a church in Minneapolis.
Pastor: “This is unacceptable. It's shameful to interrupt a public gathering of Christians in worship…”
Lemon: “Listen, there's a constitution, the First… pic.twitter.com/joHdCvaXe6
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) January 18, 2026
During the livestream, Lemon reported that protesters claimed one of the church’s pastors held a position with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, an agency within the Department of Homeland Security. Church leaders have not publicly confirmed the allegation.
One of the founders of the church, Joe Rigney, laid into the protesters, writing the disruption was planned and coordinated, as agitators sat through the first part of the service before standing and chanting accusations at the pastors and members. The agitators proudly filmed and posted themselves screaming at children, harassing churchgoers, and demanding that they denounce ICE and accusing them of being “fake Christians” for not “standing with their Latino and Somali neighbors.”
The effort was coordinated with Don Lemon, former anchor at CNN, who livestreamed the entire disruption, comparing it to the Civil Rights Movement and justifying it on the grounds that “people are angry” and the Constitution allows them to disrupt and make people uncomfortable. Lemon reiterated this justification in an interview with lead pastor Jonathan Parnell, after the pastor said, “It’s shameful to interrupt a public gathering of Christians in worship.”
This brazen invasion of a Christian worship gathering demonstrates the lawlessness of the modern left. Not content to disrupt lawful law enforcement activity, they have now resorted to targeting law enforcement officers, their families, and anyone connected to them, even in a house of worship. And they are breaking the law by invading a church in order to defend those who broke the law by invading our country.
Responsibility for this lawlessness is squarely placed not only on the agitators themselves, but the Democratic politicians who have aided and encouraged them—from Joe Biden, who willfully allowed the mass invasion of illegal migrants during his four years in office, to Gov. Tim Walz and Mayor Jacob Frey, who have refused to cooperate with federal agents and instead have encouraged their activists to “protest loudly, urgently, but also peacefully.” The last qualification is a vain and ineffectual attempt to contain the chaos and disorder that Walz has unleashed on Minnesota’s citizens. For the left, their only law is lawlessness.
Eleven years ago today, I helped plant Cities Church.
I served as a pastor there for 8 years.
This is a normal Baptist Church.
They worship Jesus.
They love each other.
They seek the good of their neighbors.
And the Left hates them and wants to shut them down, because… https://t.co/A0eiRE34uT
— Joe Rigney (@joe_rigney) January 19, 2026
Some have argued that the attack on a church service was a good reminder about what’s at stake in the upcoming elections. The last time Democrats held power, they used the FBI to spy on and labeled pro-Jesus ads as “fascist.”
I’m a lifelong independent. I dislike party politics. But the literal fate of the American experiment hangs in the balance. We cannot afford to let Republicans lose the midterms. pic.twitter.com/MzUmYX8eI0
— Brandi Kruse (@BrandiKruse) January 19, 2026
The disruption comes amid daily clashes between demonstrators, local law enforcement, and federal agents linked to Operation Metro Surge, a major ICE initiative in the Minneapolis–St. Paul area. According to local media reports, the operation has resulted in more than 2,000 arrests since its launch late last year.
Federal officials have emphasized that the arrests include individuals with serious criminal records. Critics, including state officials and civil rights organizations, have raised concerns about enforcement tactics, citing reported non-fatal shootings involving ICE agents last week and the fatal shooting of a woman earlier this month after she hit an officer with her car trying to evade arrest.
Reaction from religious leaders was swift and sharply worded.
North American Mission Board President Kevin Ezell wrote on Twitter that the church is led by a city missionary affiliated with the organization. He described the interruption of a Sunday morning service as “absurd” and said that if local elected officials fail to address what he characterized as lawlessness, the board would provide security for the congregation. Ezell added that he spoke with the missionary after the service and learned that children present were terrified by the disruption.
This church is pastored by @SendNetwork ’s city missionary in Minneapolis-St. Paul. It is absurd that protestors would disrupt a Sunday morning worship service. If elected officials won’t contain lawlessness, @NAMB_SBC will provide protection for our churches.
— Kevin Ezell (@kevezell) January 18, 2026
Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee President Jeff Iorg also condemned the incident, calling it “absolutely wrong on every level.”
Miles Mullin, chief of staff for the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, issued a statement calling the sanctity of church services “inviolable.” He said the government has a duty not only to permit peaceful worship but to protect it as a constitutional right. Mullin labeled the protest a “gross violation” of the First Amendment and urged Minnesota Governor Tim Walz and Attorney General Keith Ellison to publicly denounce the disruption and commit to protecting churches statewide from similar incidents.
Miles Smith, a professor at Hillsdale, noted on Twitter that City Church is not “right wing,” explaining that “ It’s normal Calvinist-leaning SBC. Laypeople have the right to peaceably assemble for worship w/out interruption. If municipal and state authorities won’t protect that right, national authorities should.”
As to City Church not being particularly partisan I think the point is “if someone is willing to do this to a fairly normal evangelical church, what will they do to one perceived as even more politically right wing.” That’s worrisome. https://t.co/V5vUri40W5
— Miles Smith IV (@IVMiles) January 19, 2026
The Department of Justice has reportedly opened an investigation into the church disruption, focusing on potential violations of federal laws protecting religious exercise.
The episode underscores how protests against ICE have become less about immigration enforcement and more about enforcing ideological conformity, even as Americans gather for Sunday worship. If they’ll attack City Chruch in Minneapolis, a regular church filled with normal people who love Jesus and want to worship in peace, they’ll attack any church, just like they did during the summer of 2022 and protested a funeral for children murdered by a transgender shooter during mass last September.
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