All posts tagged: Minneapolis

ICE agent charged with assault by Minnesota prosecutors

ICE agent charged with assault by Minnesota prosecutors

Published by Sam Flores

Members of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement stand at the scene after a driver of a vehicle was shot in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Jan. 7, 2026. Tim Evans | Reuters An Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent has been charged with two counts of assault related to a road rage incident by state prosecutors in Minnesota, who have issued a nationwide warrant for his arrest. The ICE agent, Gregory Donnell Morgan Jr., is accused of pointing his duty gun at the heads of two people in another car on Feb. 5 as he tried to pass them while illegally driving in his unmarked SUV on the shoulder of a highway in Minneapolis, prosecutors said Thursday at a press conference. The incident came on the heels of the killings in January of two U.S. citizens, Renée Good and Alex Pretti, by federal agents in Minneapolis, amid the Trump administration’s controversial Operation Metro Surge immigration enforcement actions in the Twin Cities. Those killings, and other incidents involving federal immigration enforcement agents in the Twin Cities, remain under investigation by …

Millions expected to fill US streets in third ‘No Kings’ protest against Trump

Millions expected to fill US streets in third ‘No Kings’ protest against Trump

Published by Sam Flores

Massive nationwide protests against US President Donald Trump are expected Saturday as millions of people vent fury over what they see as his authoritarian bent and other forms of cruel, law-trampling governance. It is the third time in less than a year that Americans will take to the streets as part of a grassroots movement called “No Kings”, the most vocal and visual conduit for opposition to Trump since he began his second term in January 2025. And now they have something new to fume over – the war in Iran that Trump launched alongside Israel, with ever-shifting goals and timelines for completion. The first such nationwide protest day came in June on Trump’s 79th birthday and coincided with a military parade in Washington that he insisted on holding. Read moreTrump’s signature to appear on US currency in a first for sitting president Several million people turned out, from New York to San Francisco and many places in between. The second “No Kings” day in October drew an estimated seven million protesters, according to organizers. …

Faith leaders’ activism shows organized religion can still be a force for good

Faith leaders’ activism shows organized religion can still be a force for good

Published by Sam Flores

(RNS) — The Rev. Kenny Callahan sat handcuffed in the back of an SUV after distracting ICE from abducting one of his neighbors. “Take me instead,” he yelled. So they did. “I’m not afraid of you,” the pastor of All God’s Children Metropolitan Community Church in Minneapolis told them. The agents visited him in the vehicle three times, as he sat next to two other detainees, asking each time if he was afraid yet. “No,” Callahan answered each time. Finally, one officer told him “Well. You’re white. You wouldn’t be any fun anyway,” and let him go. Callahan’s story, first reported by the local Fox affiliate, is one of many compelling testimonies from the burgeoning revival of religious resistance to authoritarianism in the U.S.  From Jewish groups staging mass protests to Muslim mosques hosting civic defense panels, to Buddhist sanghas practicing “faithful defiance,” the religious left is finding its place in the vanguard of the United States’ pro-democracy movement, showing us that contrary to popular belief organized religion can be a force for good. Faith-based …

Federal judge grants injunction allowing clergy visits at Minneapolis ICE holding facility

Federal judge grants injunction allowing clergy visits at Minneapolis ICE holding facility

Published by Sam Flores

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Clergy will be allowed to minister to immigrants in a holding facility at the headquarters of the Trump administration’s enforcement surge in Minnesota, a federal judge ruled Friday. U.S. District Judge Jerry Blackwell granted an injunction requested by Minnesota branches of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, the United Church of Christ, and a Catholic priest who had sued the Department of Homeland Security. Under his ruling, clergy will be allowed in-person pastoral visits to all detainees at the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building in Minneapolis, the site of frequent protests over roughly the 3,000 federal officers who had surged into the state at the height of the crackdown. Blackwell said the plaintiffs had met their burden of proving that they’re likely to succeed when the case reaches a final conclusion, and that restrictions on the religious freedom of clergy to minister to detainees constitutes “irreparable harm.” He ordered both sides to meet within four business days to try to agree on details for how to provide access that takes …

Judge grants Minneapolis clergy access to detainees in ICE holding facility

Judge grants Minneapolis clergy access to detainees in ICE holding facility

Published by Sam Flores

(RNS) — A federal judge has ordered the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to allow faith leaders inside a federal holding facility near Minneapolis after the clergy were denied access earlier this year while trying to provide religious support to immigrant detainees. U.S. District Judge Jerry Blackwell issued a preliminary injunction in support of clergy who sued the federal government, requiring the government to grant faith leaders immediate access to the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building — which houses local Immigration and Customs Enforcement offices — while the case proceeds. The judge also instructed the government and the plaintiffs to attempt to work out shared protocol over the next week or so to address specific questions, such as whether faith leaders will be allowed to physically touch detainees. Irina Vaynerman, cofounder of Groundwork Legal, one of the law firms representing the plaintiffs, told Religion News Service it was unusual for a judge to rule from the bench in such a case. “It speaks to the merits of the claims here, and also the urgency,” she …

Braiding together our sacred union, from Roger Williams to Minneapolis

Braiding together our sacred union, from Roger Williams to Minneapolis

Published by Sam Flores

This commentary was originally delivered at Washington National Cathedral on Feb. 24, 2026. (RNS) — There was a snowstorm the night Roger Williams fled Salem. He was sick and alone, a Puritan minister cast out by the Puritan theocracy for his diverse opinions. He stuffed his pockets full of corn paste and headed south into the forest. The snow drifts were piled above his head. Rough men with murderous eyes were close behind. He survived because native tribes sheltered him. Who were these people who saw a man by the side of the road and stopped to take him in? What beliefs inspired them? What names of God guided them? What rituals gave them comfort? Roger Williams hungered to know. This is why he had defied the Puritan magisterium. Of course there were an expanse of cosmologies in God’s expansive cosmos. That journey marked him forever. As he shaped the state of Rhode Island, he built it on the foundation that people of “other worships” could be “peacable and quiet Subjects, loving and helpful neighbours, …

In Minneapolis, Augsburg University 2026 interfaith symposium will focus on healing

In Minneapolis, Augsburg University 2026 interfaith symposium will focus on healing

Published by Sam Flores

Faith Matters Network founder Rev. Jen Bailey to headline annual symposium MINNEAPOLIS —Augsburg University will offer its fourth annual Interfaith Symposium at noon on Wednesday, March 25, 2026, featuring Rev. Jen Bailey. The Interfaith Symposium is an annual invitation to students and community members to learn about religious, spiritual, and worldview diversity and connect with exceptional interfaith leaders.  Bailey’s keynote address, “Healing the Earth, Healing Ourselves,” will draw on her work as an ordained minister, public theologian, and national leader in the multifaith movement for justice.  “Jen Bailey is the right voice for our times,” said Professor Najeeba Syeed, El-Hibri Endowed Chair and executive director of Interfaith at Augsburg. “She not only believes in building a better world for all, she embodies it in her ministry, professional work, and personal life.” Bailey’s career has been anchored in service to community and a commitment to justice. She is the founder of Faith Matters Network, a Womanist-led organization equipping community organizers, faith leaders, and activists with resources for connection, spiritual sustainability, and accompaniment, and a co-founder of …

With most new refugees barred, synagogues turn to serving those already here

With most new refugees barred, synagogues turn to serving those already here

Published by Sam Flores

DURHAM, N.C. (RNS) — Over the past five years, members of Judea Reform Congregation have helped resettle 13 refugee families from such countries as Afghanistan, Haiti, Syria, Ukraine and Venezuela. Many of its volunteers are still caring for them. They recently sent the refugee families a spring food gift basket to celebrate Ramadan, Nowruz and Easter. Welcoming refugees is still a core mission of the synagogue, but no new refugees will be welcomed at the annual Refugee Shabbat commemoration this weekend. With President Donald Trump’s executive order, signed the day of his inauguration, all refugee admissions have been frozen, with the exception of Afrikaners, South African white farmers, of which 2,000 have been resettled across the U.S. Instead, at Friday night (March 13) services, the congregation will hear from the first Latina member of the Durham City Council about the city’s efforts to welcome immigrants. Next month, volunteers from this synagogue will join up with the Eno River Unitarian Universalist Fellowship in Durham to start a sewing circle for Afghan women who have been resettled in …

With most new refugees barred, synagogues turn to serving those already here

Synagogues mark Refugee Shabbat in a year without refugees

Published by Sam Flores

DURHAM, N.C. (RNS) — Over the past five years, members of Judea Reform Congregation have helped resettle 13 refugee families from such countries as Afghanistan, Haiti, Syria, Ukraine and Venezuela. Many of its volunteers are still caring for them. They recently sent the refugee families a spring food gift basket to celebrate Ramadan, Nowruz and Easter. Welcoming refugees is still a core mission of the synagogue, but no new refugees will be welcomed at the annual Refugee Shabbat commemoration this weekend. With President Donald Trump’s executive order, signed the day of his inauguration, all refugee admissions have been frozen, with the exception of Afrikaners, South African white farmers, of which 2,000 have been resettled across the U.S. Instead, at Friday night (March 13) services, the congregation will hear from the first Latina member of the Durham City Council about the city’s efforts to welcome immigrants. Next month, volunteers from this synagogue will join up with the Eno River Unitarian Universalist Fellowship in Durham to start a sewing circle for Afghan women who have been resettled in …

In Minnesota, US cardinals and pope’s ambassador decry mass deportations and call for reconciliation

In Minnesota, US cardinals and pope’s ambassador decry mass deportations and call for reconciliation

Published by Sam Flores

ST PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Two American cardinals and the Vatican’s ambassador to the U.S. denounced the mass deportations in Minnesota under the federal government’s immigration crackdown, but they urged everyone to repair strained relations and work together toward humane solutions. In St. Paul on Friday, Cardinal Robert McElroy of Washington addressed growing concerns with immigration enforcement while highlighting the need to be peacemakers on the polarizing issue after a Mass for migrants he celebrated with his fellow prelates and the Twin Cities’ archbishop. McElroy depicted this winter’s enforcement surge as “almost a siege” that unfolded in “literally the heartland of our country.” “Catholic teaching supports the nation’s right to control its border and, in these cases, to deport those who’ve been convicted of serious crimes,” he said. “Seeking to deport millions of men and women and children — families who often lived here for decades, many children who don’t know other countries — is contrary to Catholic faith and, more fundamentally, contrary to basic human dignity.” McElroy joined Cardinal Joseph Tobin of Newark, New …