Don Lemon captured anti-ICE protesters storming a church and confronting a pastor who they believed works as an immigration agent during a chaotic scene that sabotaged the church’s service on Sunday.
Lemon recorded the protesters during a livestream on his YouTube program. The protesters ran into Cities Church in Minneapolis and started screaming and chanting slogans like “Hands Up, Don’t Shoot!” and “ICE OUT” repeatedly.
“They’ve stopped the service [and] a lot of people, a number of people have left,” Lemon reported.
He added a moment later, “A surprise effort here, obviously, and the folks here are not happy about it.”
The ex-CNN star said the protesters interrupted the service because they had “found out” the pastor worked for ICE — leading them to launch their “clandestine mission,” as he put it. There are no reports from local or major outlets on the pastor being an ICE agent.
A number of church attendees were irate with the intrusion and yelled at the protesters to beat it. Lemon defended the protesters — saying they were simply exercising their Constitutional rights to protest.
“This is what the First Amendment is about, the freedom to protest,” Lemon told viewers. “I’m sure people here don’t like it, but protests are not comfortable.”
He noted a moment later than a young man was not comfortable with the loud interruption and was “frightened… scared [and] crying” in the corner.
At one point one of the church goers asked Lemon if he was part of the protest. He told the attendee he was “just here photographing, I’m a journalist.”
The anti-ICE protest is the latest in Minnesota following the shooting death of Renee Good earlier this month. Many of those protests have turned into violent clashes between protesters and ICE agents, with CNN reporting last week that some protesters were “physically” interfering with an ICE operation.
After the protesters completely wrecked the service and forced the faithful to go home after about 20 minutes, Lemon interviewed some of the attendees as they exited. One older gentleman said he agreed the protesters should be free to exercise their First Amendment right — but that does not mean they’re allowed to spoil a private church service.
“I agree with everyone’s freedom to protest. These people have come into our house and interrupted our worship. This is a house of peace and we try to proclaim that, and this stirs division and ranker. And in the end it’s not helpful,” he said.
The man continued, “Ultimately I believe they’ve lost. They’ve emptied a house of worship, everybody’s gone home, their point has been proven worthless. So in the end, I think they lose.”
Watch above; the relevant portion begins roughly 40 minutes into the video.
