5 things to know after the storming of a Minnesota church by Anti-ICE activists

5. Don Lemon put 'on notice' by the DOJ

Former CNN host Don Lemon entered the Cities Church along with the anti-ICE demonstrators on Sunday. In a video that circulated on social media, Lemon is heard speaking with Cities Church lead pastor Jonathan Parnell about the disruption and asking what he thought about the protest. 

"This is unacceptable, it's shameful. It's shameful to interrupt a public gathering of Christians in worship," the pastor replied. 

Lemon argued that the First Amendment protects freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, and the right to protest, to which the pastor replied that the church members were there to worship.

The former CNN host asked the pastor if he had tried to talk with the anti-ICE protesters, but the pastor said that no one was willing to talk. The pastor is then heard asking Lemon to leave the building. 

In a Sunday X post, Dhillon responded to Lemon’s claim that the disruption at the Cities Church is a constitutionally protected right under the First Amendment. 

“A house of worship is not a public forum for your protest! It is a space protected from exactly such acts by federal criminal and civil laws! Nor does the First Amendment protect your pseudo journalism of disrupting a prayer service,” Dhillon declared. “You are on notice!”

Speaking with political commentator Benny Johnson on Monday about the U.S. Department of Justice’s plans to pursue charges following the protest at Cities Church, Dhillon said that she believes various crimes occurred.

According to Dhillon, the FACE Act has come up in discussions related to the case.

"Don Lemon himself has come out and said he knew exactly what was going to happen inside that facility. He went into the facility, and then he began ‘committing journalism,’ as if that’s sort of a shield from being a part, an embedded part of a criminal conspiracy," Dhillon said. 

"It isn’t and so we’re getting our ducks in a row, putting the facts together, and this is a very serious matter," she continued. "Come next Sunday, nobody should think in the United States that they’re going to be able to get away with this. Everyone in the protest community needs to know that the fullest force of the federal government is going to come down and prevent this from happening and put people away for a long, long time."

Signed by President Bill Clinton in 1994, the FACE Act prohibits the use of force, threat of force, or physical obstruction to injure, intimidate, or interfere with anyone “lawfully exercising or seeking to exercise the First Amendment right of religious freedom at a place of religious worship.” The law also protects facilities that provide “reproductive health services,” including abortion clinics and pro-life pregnancy resource centers.

"The Biden DOJ used the Klan Act conspiracy charges tacked onto the FACE Act in the case of protests outside abortion clinics to bring much longer sentences," Dhillon said. "So, there are a number of tools available to us."