18 U.S.C. §241 makes it a federal crime for two or more people to conspire to injure, oppress, threaten, or intimidate anyone in the free exercise or enjoyment of rights secured by the Constitution or federal law; penalties include fines and up to 10 years’ imprisonment for typical violations, and if death or certain aggravated offenses result, penalties can include life imprisonment or the death penalty.
Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) is the principal criminal investigative arm of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) within the Department of Homeland Security (DHS); HSI handles criminal investigations (including transnational crime, human trafficking, and immigration-related crime), while ICE also contains Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO), which manages civil immigration enforcement.
DHS/HSI led the arrests (the DHS release says HSI and FBI partners made the arrests); the Department of Justice (through U.S. Attorney and the Civil Rights/Criminal divisions) handles charging decisions and prosecutions while the FBI often partners on investigations—news coverage and agency statements identify HSI as the primary arresting component with FBI involvement and DOJ (U.S. Attorney/AG) announcing the action.
Public reporting shows the three were arrested and at least two (Armstrong and Allen) appeared in federal court and were released; as of available public sources there is no public federal indictment document posted specifying additional counts beyond the cited 18 U.S.C. §241, and formal grand-jury indictments were not publicly posted in the news releases reviewed.
DHS/agency statements and news reports reference evidence including video of the incident and organized planning of the protest, but publicly released materials cited in news coverage do not yet list a detailed evidentiary exhibit list (communications/witness statements) — specific evidentiary items beyond referenced video/organizing were not publicly disclosed in the DHS/DOJ news reports reviewed.
News reports identify the pastor targeted by protesters as David Easterwood (a pastor at Cities Church) and note protesters alleged he was connected to ICE; those allegations are reported as protesters’ claims in coverage, and DHS/ICE/DOJ releases reviewed do not provide independent public confirmation substantiating that the pastor ‘worked for ICE.’
The DHS release claims large percentage increases in assaults, vehicular attacks, and threats against ICE personnel and cites more than 10,000 arrests in Minnesota since Jan. 20, 2025; however the DHS release does not link to the raw data or an independent dataset in-line—corroborating statistics should be sought from ICE/DHS incident/assault reports or public DOJ/ICE data portals, which were not linked in the DHS news release.