MINNEAPOLIS—Determination to resist the continuing assault on democracy by the Trump administration is reflected in demonstrations breaking out here and from coast to coast. There are boycotts being organized by teachers and students in schools, customers at shopping plazas, and workers on the job in Minnesota by people angry about the administration’s backing off on claims that it was going to draw down its attacks on immigrants and their supporters.
Early in the morning on Jan. 30, people were already gathering at the Federal Building.
The repression was intensified Thursday with the arrest and jailing of journalists covering the protests. The assault on freedom of the press involved the arrest and jailing of Don Lemon, a longtime CNN anchor, as he covered a protest by dozens of anti-ICE demonstrators in a church in St. Paul, Minn. The pastor of that church admits having worked with ICE.
One of the major charges against Lemon, according to a DHS spokesman, is that he obstructed the right of people to worship as they please. His lawyers note he was covering, not participating in the protests.
Independent journalist Georgia Fort, who was filming the protest, was also arrested. According to the NewsGuild, she was seized at her home at 9 a.m. Friday morning, and at press time, the union had not received any additional information. Fort is a member of the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ), as is Lemon. A NABJ spokesperson said they would forward any additional statements to People’s World as soon as they become available.
Caroline Hendrie, Executive Director of the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ), told People’s World, regarding the arrest of Lemon: “The arrest was outrageous; all Lemon was doing was his job, covering a preacher who has been exposed as an ICE informant.”
Jon Schleuss, president of the NewsGuild, told People’s World: “It’s absolutely outrageous for any administration, especially the Trump administration, to arrest any journalist. Sadly, this administration has made it their priority by arresting and shooting journalists with rubber bullets. It’s awful.”
Attorney General Pam Bondi announced that she personally ordered the arrests. Since the pastor is working with ICE, it is expected that the Department of Justice will come up with a plethora of false charges against the journalists, including that they violated free speech and freedom of religion.
CNN, where Lemon worked until 2023, came out in his defense. “The FBI’s arrest of our former CNN colleague Don Lemon raises profoundly concerning questions about press freedom and the First Amendment,” the network said.
“The Department of Justice already failed twice to get an arrest warrant for Don and several other journalists in Minnesota, where a chief judge of the Minnesota Federal District Court found there was ‘no evidence’ that there was any criminal behavior involved in their work.
“The First Amendment in the United States protects journalists who bear witness to news and events as they unfold, ensuring they can report freely in the public interest, and the DOJ’s attempts to violate those rights is unacceptable. We will be following this case closely.”
The DOJ is claiming that Lemon tried to deprive worshippers in the church led by a pro-ICE pastor of their right to worship as they please. “If you interfere with the right of people to worship as they please, we are coming for you,” Bondi said Friday morning.
If these were normal times, it’s the type of claim that most courts, like the court that rejected earlier charges against Lemon, would dismiss. Nevertheless, the arrests, if nothing else, are designed to intimidate the press, along with anyone else who in any way challenges what the administration is doing.
The arrests and jailing of the journalists add to the growing list of people the Trump administration is investigating. The list includes the wife of Renee Good, killed by ICE agents in Minneapolis; Alex Pretti, who was killed there; and a variety of lawmakers, including the governor of Minnesota and the mayor of Minneapolis. Missing from the list of people investigated are the ICE agents who have shot and killed people.
Trump’s hand-picked judges are making it easier for the Department of Justice and the rest of his administration to continue and intensify their attacks on immigrants and their supporters, including now the arrests of journalists.
They step in almost every time that the original trial level judges hearing cases issue rulings that restrain Trump’s out-of-control agents, including ICE and the FBI. As soon as the cases reach a Trump-appointed higher-level judge, the lower rulings are overturned.
There was a recent positive ruling by a trial judge that put restrictions on how agents can respond to people protesting Operation Metro Surge in Minnesota. Had those restrictions been followed in Minneapolis, Pretti would not have been killed.
The administration has since scored a victory when a three-judge federal panel indefinitely paused those restrictions. Trump says he has unlimited, unreviewable authority when it comes to matters of immigration.
As part of the administration’s move to defuse anger over their immigration policies, DHS Secretary Kritsi Noem seemed to modify her initial remarks on the killing of Pretti, saying that her statements were based on “the best information we had at the time.”
Shortly afterward, however, Trump went back to his hard line and, on a social media post, said Pretti was a “professional agitator, perhaps an insurrectionist.”
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