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By Joshua Rhett Miller
Senior Reporter
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An outspoken anti-immigration enforcement protester is vowing to continue practicing his First Amendment rights until federal authorities leave Minnesota — insisting “I am not afraid.”
William Scott Kelly, who disrupted a service Sunday at Cities Church in St. Paul, said he intends to stay in the region until U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers end ongoing enforcement efforts.
“How dare you accuse me of violating your safe space while you are supporting this tyranny, this rape of our country?” Kelly told Newsweek during an interview on Tuesday. “They are U.S. citizens, whether they be Latino or Somali, and they are afraid to go outside because of the color of their skin. They can’t go practice their religions peacefully because they’re afraid that they’ll be ripped off the street by masked Gestapo. So I’m going to stand for this nation, I’m going to be loud, I’m going to get in people’s faces.”
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Attorney General Pam Bondi announced Kelly's arrest on Thursday, two days after he vowed to keep protesting against ICE operations in Minneapolis.
"William Kelly is now in custody," Bondi posted on X. "Our nation was settled and founded by people fleeing religious persecution. Religious freedom is the bedrock of this country. We will protect our pastors. We will protect our churches. We will protect Americans of faith."
Bondi also announced the arrests of Minneapolis-based civil rights attorney Nekima Levy Armstrong and Chauntyll Louisa Allen for allegedly violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act, which bars violence, threats or obstruction to prevent people from receiving reproductive health services or accessing religious worship.
Kelly, 36, better known online as “DaWokeFarmer," said he joined Sunday’s protest alongside Armstrong to highlight that one of the church’s pastors, David Easterwood, also works as the acting field director of ICE’s St. Paul office.
“I didn’t have any details, I showed up in a parking lot with a group of other people and [Armstrong] introduced herself, told us a little bit about what she does, gave us an address and said meet us there,” Kelly said. “That’s all we knew. We didn’t know what we [were] doing, we didn’t know anything about what was happening.”
Once at the church, Kelly said parishioners initially welcomed the group inside before Armstrong “did her thing” and identified herself as a reverend while accusing Easterwood of hypocrisy.
“How can you be a Christian pastor while grabbing human beings?” Kelly said. “That’s the opposite of the words Jesus said.”
Kelly said the protesters then “got a little loud,” but insisted he or others were never asked to leave.
“We did our thing, we raised our voices,” he said. “We were never asked to leave and as you see on the videos, I lectured these so-called Christians for supporting this madness. Going into a church that supports ICE is completely the opposite of the words Jesus preached, and so I said that to them.”
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Kelly acknowledged protesting loudly, but insisted he didn’t threaten or intimidate anyone inside the church.
“We do our thing, the church service ends, and then we walk out peacefully,” Kelly said. “And I did the same thing outside—I lectured these so-called Christians for not living the words of Jesus.”
Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon said the Department of Justice is investigating the incident for potential violations of the FACE Act.
Kelly, meanwhile, said he has no intention of ending his activism.
“They welcomed me in, they invited me in,” he said of Sunday’s service. “I was wearing a F*** Trump shirt and a F*** Trump hat. They knew what I was there for.”
Kelly insisted the service never fully stopped and denied violating the rights of churchgoers.
“They’re intimidating us,” he said of DOJ officials. “They’re using their political power to intimidate First Amendment activists, to intimidate other politicians, to intimidate people who are standing up for our constitutional rights.”
Kelly, who said he previously served in the U.S. Army from 2007 until 2011, vowed to continue protesting in Minneapolis and vowed to fight any charges connected to Sunday’s incident.
“I’m not going to be intimidated by these goons, by these Nazis,” he said.
Newsweek reached out to the Department of Justice and the U.S. Army for comment on Tuesday.
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Kelly said he was detained for several hours on Friday for allegedly blocking traffic outside the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building in St. Paul. He claims an ICE agent put a knee to his neck while being taken into custody and “violently” searched him.
“I was in there for 3 and a half hours in a cell with other citizens,” he said. “They never read us our rights; they never told us what we were charged with.”
Kelly said he was later given a misdemeanor citation for blocking access to a federal building. He plans to contest the charges.
“I am suing for wrongful arrest and excessive force,” he said. “An officer putting a knee on a person’s neck is a felony in Minnesota.”
Kelly said he’ll keep protesting in Minneapolis and Washington, D.C., where he has previously led demonstrations outside a church attended by Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth.
"All I'm doing is standing up for our constitutional rights," he said. "I love this country. I believe in this republic and I'm going to continue to use my First Amendment right to stand up to it. If they come at me with some charges, I will fight them in a court of law. If they throw me in the gulag, so be it."
Update, 1/22/26 at 2:17 p.m. ET: This story was updated with additional information.
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