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By Khaleda Rahman
National Correspondent
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David Easterwood, who leads the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) field office in St. Paul, also apparently serves as a pastor at a church that was disrupted by protesters on Sunday.
Dozens of protesters entered the Cities Church in St. Paul during a service, with some chanting "ICE out" and "Justice for Renee Good"—the woman an ICE agent fatally shot in Minneapolis on January 7.
The protesters alleged that Easterwood, one of the church's eight pastors, also led the local ICE field office overseeing operations in Minnesota. Easterwood did not lead the part of the service that was livestreamed by protest organizers, and it was unclear whether he was present at the church on Sunday.
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Tricia McLaughlin, assistant secretary of public affairs at the Department of Homeland Security, told Newsweek that the department "will never confirm or deny attempts to dox our law enforcement officers. Doxing our officers put their lives and their families in serious danger."
Newsweek has contacted Cities Church for comment via a contact form on its website.
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Why It Matters
The protests occurred amid heightened tensions in Minnesota, which has been at the center of the federal government's immigration enforcement efforts since December, leading to widespread backlash.
Tensions escalated earlier in January after the fatal shooting of Renee Nicole Good, a 37-year-old U.S. citizen, by an immigration agent. Another shooting involving an ICE agent left Venezuelan migrant Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis injured during an attempted arrest.
What To Know
The Minnesota-Wisconsin Baptist Convention, with which Cities Church is affiliated, condemned the protest, saying in a statement that protesters had "interrupted the service to demand the congregation denounce the federal government's immigration enforcement, specifically targeting the role of Pastor David Easterwood as a field office director for ICE."
On its website, the Cities Church features a photo of Easterwood along with the church's other pastors and staff. Easterwood is also seen in a 2020 video featured on the church's Facebook page.
The pastor's personal information appears to match that of the David Eastwood identified in court filings as the acting director of the ICE St. Paul field office, The Associated Press reported.
The man seen in the photo on the church's website and in the video on Facebook closely resembles the David Easterwood who appeared alongside Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem at a news conference in Minneapolis in October. During the news conference, Easterwood identified himself as the acting field office director for Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) at ICE in St. Paul.
"I'm honored to lead the officers and staff of ICE ERO across Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa, and Nebraska," Easterwood told reporters. "The men and women of ERO St. Paul embody the highest standards of professionalism, integrity and dedication."
In a January 5 declaration in a case filed in December on behalf of six Minnesota activists, Easterwood said he had worked for ICE since September 2015.
He wrote that he worked as a deportation officer from 2015 until 2019, then as a supervisory detention and deportation officer until 2022 before being promoted to assistant field office director in North Dakota and South Dakota. He wrote that he was the deputy field office director of the ERO office in St. Paul from April until October 2025.
Easterwood also defended ICE's tactics in Minnesota, including spraying protesters with chemical irritants.
He wrote that ICE agents were experiencing "increased threats, violence, aggression, attacks, vehicle block-ins, and obstruction of immigration enforcement operations," and that barring ICE from using chemical munitions would impair the agency's ability "to safely execute both criminal search and arrest warrants" and "safely conduct immigration enforcement actions."
He testified that he did not witness and was unaware of agents "knowingly targeting or retaliating against peaceful protesters or legal observers with less lethal munitions and/or crowd control devices for exercising their First Amendment rights."
What People Are Saying
Nekima Levy Armstrong, an ordained reverend who leads the local grassroots civil rights organization Racial Justice Network, told The Associated Press: "When you think about the federal government unleashing barbaric ICE agents upon our community and all the harm that they have caused, to have someone serving as a pastor who oversees these ICE agents, is almost unfathomable to me.
"If people are more concerned about someone coming to a church on a Sunday and disrupting business as usual than they are about the atrocities that we are experiencing in our community, then they need to check their theology and they need to check their hearts."
Monique Cullars-Doty, a Black Lives Matter Minnesota co-founder, told AP: "If you got a head—a leader in a church—that is leading and orchestrating ICE raids, my God, what has the world come to? We can't sit back idly and watch people go and be led astray."
The Minnesota-Wisconsin Baptist Convention said in a statement: "On January 18, 2026, approximately 30 to 40 activists forcibly entered Cities Church in St. Paul during a time of worship. The group interrupted the service to demand the congregation denounce the federal government's immigration enforcement, specifically targeting the role of Pastor David Easterwood as a field office director for ICE. Despite multiple requests from church leadership for the group to leave, the interference was so significant that services were forced to end prematurely. Video footage captured by the protesters themselves and others show them shouting insults and accusations at youth, children, and families. This is an unacceptable trauma."
Tricia McLaughlin, Assistant Secretary of Public Affairs at the Department of Homeland Security told Newsweek: "“Agitators aren’t just targeting our officers. Now they’re targeting churches, too. They are going from hotel to hotel, church to church, hunting for federal law enforcement who are risking their lives to protect Americans. Tim Walz and Jacob Frey are responsible for whipping these mobs into a frenzy and then allowing them to run rampant. We won’t be deterred. ICE isn’t going anywhere."
She added: "DHS will never confirm or deny attempts to dox our law enforcement officers. Doxing our officers put their lives and their families in serious danger. Our law enforcement officers are on the front lines arresting terrorists, gang members, murderers, pedophiles, and rapists. Now, thanks to the malicious rhetoric of sanctuary politicians, they are under constant threat from violent agitators. They are facing a 1,300% increase in assaults against them, a 3,200% increase in vehicular attacks against them, and an 8,000% increase in death threats against them. Publicizing their identities puts their lives and the lives of their families at serious risk."
Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon, the head of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division, wrote on X: "Whoever paid for, coordinated, or participated in this attack made a big—BIG—mistake. No worshipper in this country should ever feel intimidated in a house of God, and @TheJusticeDept will bring the full force of the law, as directed by @AGPamBondi."
President Donald Trump wrote on Truth Social: "Just watched footage of the Church Raid in Minnesota by the agitators and insurrectionists. These people are professionals! No person acts the way they act. They are highly trained to scream, rant, and rave, like lunatics, in a certain manner, just like they are doing. They are troublemakers who should be thrown in jail, or thrown out of the Country. The first to go should be Walz, and Fake Sleazebag, Ilhan Omar, who is supposedly worth over $30 Million Dollars, even though she's never had anything but a Government job. Investigate these Corrupt Politicians, and do it now!"
What Happens Next
The assistant attorney general for civil rights at the U.S. Department of Justice has said her office is investigating "potential violations" of the federal Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act.
Attorney General Pam Bondi has vowed to exercise the "full force of federal law" against the demonstrators.
Update 1/20/26, 10:15 a.m. ET: This article has been updated to add a statement from Tricia McLaughlin.
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