This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org. I’m Amy Goodman, as we continue to look at the deadly federal immigration crackdown in Minnesota.
We’re joined now by the civil rights attorney, minister and activist Nekima Levy Armstrong. On Friday, she was released from jail, a day after she and at least two others were arrested for participating in an anti-ICE demonstration at Cities Church in St. Paul, where one of the pastors also leads a local ICE field office. This is a clip from that protest.
JONATHAN PARNELL: Shame on you! Shame on you!
NEKIMA LEVY ARMSTRONG: David Easterwood is a pastor here. He is also the director of the field office for ICE in St. Paul. So, someone who claims to worship God, teaching people in this church about God, is out there overseeing ICE agents.
AMY GOODMAN: Nekima Levy Armstrong was arrested by Homeland Security Investigations, HSI, and FBI agents at the direction of Attorney General Pam Bondi. Bondi announced Armstrong’s arrest on social media, referring to the protest as a, quote, “coordinated attack” on a house of worship. The White House then posted an AI-altered image of Nekima’s arrest, making it appear she was crying, along with the text, ”ARRESTED: FAR–LEFT AGITATOR NEKIMA LEVY ARMSTRONG FOR ORCHESTRATING CHURCH RIOTS IN MINNESOTA,” unquote. The unaltered image clearly shows she was not crying.
Nekima, welcome back to Democracy Now! There’s so much to talk about since you were released from jail, not to mention what they have done to your image, not to mention them — what has happened on Saturday, which we will mention, which is the killing of a second protester, Alex Pretti. Your response at all that has transpired? In a moment, we’re going to go to the mass protest of tens of thousands of Minnesotans on Friday.
NEKIMA LEVY ARMSTRONG: I think it’s absolutely despicable, Amy, what our federal government is doing under the guise of immigration enforcement. They have essentially waged war in the streets of Minneapolis and the Twin Cities. And as you can see, two innocent civilians, American citizens, have been brutally murdered at the hands of ICE agents.
Not only that, but, as you saw, I’m being criminalized for helping to lead a nonviolent, peaceful demonstration inside of a church in which David Easterwood serves as a pastor but also serves as the overseer for ICE agents in Minnesota. He is the very person who was cited in a lawsuit that was in front of Judge Menendez, where he was justifying the conduct of ICE agents, claiming that they were not behaving unconstitutionally, and also blaming protesters, claiming that protesters are the aggressors.
So, when you look collectively at the actions of the federal government, we have to understand that what they’re doing is unconstitutional, it is diabolical, it is illegal, and it is unacceptable. We cannot be silent at a time like this. Even after what they have done to me with these trumped-up charges, arresting me, literally, and bringing me in shackles from the federal courthouse to the Sherburne County Jail, along with my co-defendant, Chauntyll Allen, I am continuing to use my voice to speak out against this fascism, tyranny and authoritarianism of the Trump administration. And others have to do the same.
AMY GOODMAN: What are you being charged with?
NEKIMA LEVY ARMSTRONG: We are being charged with going into a church under the FACE Act, and they are claiming that we disrupted people from being able to practice their religion, or that we intended to, which is absolutely not true. We did not stop people from practicing their religion. As a matter of fact, there were folks who were still praying, who were still worshiping, who were still singing while we were there during the demonstration. And protesters and parishioners were engaged in conversation during that time. And so, they have altered the facts, just as they altered my image, as a way of trying to criminalize nonviolent, peaceful protest and lawful dissent against their unlawful and unjust actions.
AMY GOODMAN: And the idea that you have been charged, but the ICE agent who killed Renee Good — an FBI agent, an FBI officer, has just quit because she was prevented from investigating [her] death. And, of course, we don’t know what has happened to the CBP, the Customs and Border Patrol agents who killed Alex Pretti. Were they taken out of the state? We don’t know.
NEKIMA LEVY ARMSTRONG: From our understanding, they were taken out of the state. And not only does this indicate a failure of our federal government in terms of there being literally zero checks and balances for any of these federal agents that have descended upon the streets of the Twin Cities of Minnesota, but it’s also a failure of our Democratic leadership.
AMY GOODMAN: Nekima Levy Armstrong, I want to thank you for being with us.
