By Cindy Von Quednow, CNN
(CNN) — Sunday church services were underway at Cities Church in St. Paul, Minnesota, when protesters entered and began shouting “Justice for Renee Good” and “ICE out,” a video from the incident shows.
“Shame on you!” a person at the church podium shouts.
The demonstrators were at the church to protest David Easterwood, who is listed on the church website as one of the pastors and also appears to be the same person who is a top ICE official in the Twin Cities. He was recently named a defendant in a case brought by protesters who allege immigration agents violated their First and Fourth Amendment rights.
President Donald Trump called the demonstrators at the church “agitators and insurrectionists” and said they are “troublemakers who should be thrown in jail, or thrown out of the Country.”
Now, the protesters could be facing prosecution. Harmeet Dhillon, the assistant attorney general for civil rights, said the protesters were “desecrating a house of worship and interfering with Christian worshipers.”
The Department of Justice Civil Rights Division, she said, is now looking into charges against the protesters using two federal statutes: the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act and the Ku Klux Klan Act.
“Everyone in the protest community needs to know that the fullest force of the federal government is going to come down and prevent this from happening and put people away for a long time,” Dhillon said on The Benny Show, a podcast by conservative influencer Benny Johnson.
Here’s what you should know about both laws and how they could be applied.
FACE Act
The FACE Act, enacted in 1994, is a federal law that prohibits “the use of force or threat of force or physical obstruction to intentionally injure, intimidate, or interfere with or attempt to injure, intimidate, or interfere with any person lawfully exercising or seeking to exercise the First Amendment right of religious freedom at a place of religious worship.”
The statute also protects facilities that provide reproductive health services.
Punishment varies from a fine to imprisonment or both, according to the FBI.
It was used against protesters at a synagogue
As of 2024, the Department of Justice has filed more than 15 FACE Act actions in at least a dozen states, with ongoing investigations in others, according to a DOJ news release.
In one 2024 instance, the DOJ filed a lawsuit against demonstrators who “targeted” a synagogue in New Jersey during a protest that turned violent.
The demonstrators “intended to interfere with the synagogue community’s right to freely exercise their religion, includi