Episcopal priests share experiences protesting as immigration raids continue in Minnesota

Faith leaders demonstrate against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement tactics, Jan. 23 in the departures area of Terminal 1 of the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport in Minnesota. Photo: Jack Jenkins/RNS

[Episcopal News Service] Since federal immigration raids started in December in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Episcopalians have joined rallies, vigils and other events alongside interfaith partners and thousands of other protesters. 

He told ENS that the protests and subsequent arrests were “peaceful” and no one was injured or jailed. Instead, the arrested faith leaders were given citations for trespassing, refusal to disperse and creating a public nuisance.

“Our interactions with [local] law enforcement were civil, but it would’ve been a vastly different experience had it been ICE officers,” Weber-Johnson said. “We’ve seen the way they behave toward ordinary civilians and average people with escalating violence, and even death.”

The airport protest was one of several demonstrations that took place the same day in and around the Twin Cities as part of a larger “ICE Out of Minnesota” day of action. Over 50,000 people participated, including an anti-U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement march in downtown Minneapolis. 

As of Jan. 19, more than 3,000 people have been arrested or detained by federal immigration authorities, according to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

On Jan. 24, one day after the day of action, Alex Pretti, an intensive care unit nurse who worked at a Minneapolis Veterans Affairs hospital, was shot and killed by U.S. Customs and Border Patrol agents. The shooting came 17 days after an ICE officer shot and killed Renee Good on a residential street, also in Minneapolis.

Impromptu candlelight vigils honoring Pretti were held within hours of his death throughout the Twin Cities.

“Minnesotans went outside in large and small crowds holding candles, praying together, grieving together and just being in each other’s presence. …It was remarkable,” Weber-Johnson said. “To have the discipline to do the opposite of what our instincts would be in that moment, which is to lash out and to do something violent … and instead to do something peaceable and prayerful collectively – that’s very powerful.”

Many Episcopal clergy traveled from other dioceses to participate in “ICE Out of Minnesota,” including the Rev. Mike Kinman, a priest based in the Diocese of Los Angeles in California, who was also arrested at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. Kinman, who months ago had accepted Weber-Johnson’s invitation to preach on Jan. 25 at St. John the Evangelist, livestreamed the protest at the site of Pretti’s death to “bring some attention to what Border Patrol and ICE are actually doing in Minnesota.”

“I also wanted to show the heroism of the neighborhoods, of the people who were standing their ground in their neighborhood saying, ‘These are members of our community that you are kidnapping and telling to get out,’” Kinman told ENS. “It was deeply moving. There was Jesus all over the streets.”

Kinman has been a civil rights activist throughout his priesthood. In 2014, when he was dean of Christ Church Cathedral in St. Louis, Diocese of Missouri, Kinman was part of the clergy response to the killing of Michael Brown, a Black teenager who was shot by a police officer in nearby Ferguson. Brown’s death ignited months of civil unrest in protest of police brutality.

“At least in Ferguson, police seemed to have a sense of being careful about being scrutinized during protests. But now in Minneapolis, there’s an extra sense of boldness,” Kinman said. “[Immigration enforcement officials] know what they’re doing, and they’re doing it with impunity. They know that no one in the federal government’s going to hold them accountable.”

During a 2015 young adult pilgrimage to Ferguson, sponsored by The Episcopal Church, Kinman met one of the pilgrims, Jeanelle Austin, who at the time was a member of St. Barnabas Episcopal Church in Pasadena, California. A Minnesota native, she now serves as executive director of Rise and Remember, a nonprofit that promotes community development and preserves the memorials and legacy of George Floyd, a Black man who in 2020 was violently restrained and suffocated to death by a police officer in Minneapolis.

Austin explained to ENS that the ICE raids and deaths of Good and Pretti are “just the latest in a series of nonstop trauma” for Minneapolis over the last 11 years. She highlighted the killings of several unarmed Black men by police, the fatal June 2025 shootings of state Democratic lawmakers and their spouses and the mass shooting in September 2025 at a Catholic school.

“Minneapolis has had grief on top of grief on top of grief, and we’ve never really had a chance to process all this grief and trauma on our well-being,” she said. “It’s exhausting.”

Episcopal priests who also traveled from other states to Minneapolis to protest are sharing their experiences in diocesan blogs and social media. The Rev. Diana Wilcox, rector of Christ Episcopal Church in Glen Ridge, New Jersey, marched in downtown Minneapolis on Jan. 23.

“For most, this was not a single day of action. They were living this resistance daily: patrolling neighborhoods to warn of federal agents, distributing food to those unable to leave their homes and caring for one another,” Wilcox said in a blog post on the Diocese of Newark’s website. “Clergy tended their people, preaching the gospel in both word and deed. I was surrounded by prophets – exhausted, unwavering and deeply inspiring.”

The Rev. Chloe Breyer, an Episcopal priest in the Diocese of New York who serves as executive director of the Interfaith Center of New York, also joined faith leaders in Minneapolis last week to protest.

“From an outsider’s perspective, it’s impressive how incredibly organized and really disciplined [demonstrators] are at a time when their city is under occupation,” Breyer told ENS. “Minneapolis showed me that effective resistance isn’t spontaneous – it’s learned, practiced and disciplined. People don’t just show up brave. They show up prepared.”

Anti-federal immigration enforcement protests also have been held in other cities nationwide, including Los Angeles, Chicago, Illinois, and New York. Last weekend, Episcopalians, including Maine Bishop Thomas J. Brown, joined thousands of protesters in rallies in Maine in response to an ICE raid that launched on Jan. 21. in the New England state.

The Episcopal Church offers several resources for Episcopalians engaged in immigration advocacy work and peaceful protests, including its Protesting Faithfully Toolkit. The resource offers “spiritual grounding and practical resources for faithful presence at protests and public demonstrations.” The church’s Immigration Action Toolkit shares resources from organizations that address migrants’ legal rights.

-Shireen Korkzan is a reporter and assistant editor for Episcopal News Service. She can be reached at skorkzan@episcopalchurch.org.