ICE

Two women who were arrested and charged for an anti-ICE protest that ripped through a Minnesota church service last weekend have been released from custody ... and it's all on video.

Footage shows the moment Nekima Levy Armstrong and Chauntyll Allen were released from detention Friday in St. Paul.

Armstrong and Allen each raised a fist in the air as they emerged to cheers. Armstrong said, "Thank you all for being here,” Levy Armstrong said. “Glory to God!”

Earlier Friday, a federal judge ordered their release ... ruling the federal government failed to prove they deserved to be held in detention.

11:40 AM PT -- Don Lemon posted a statement from his attorney, Abbe Lowell, on his official IG account Thursday after the judge rejected the DOJ's attempt to charge him … noting journalists' First Amendment rights were properly reinforced by the federal judge.

The statement concludes … "Should the Department of Justice continue with a stunning and troubling effort to silence and punish a journalist for doing his job, Don will call out their latest attack on the rule of law and fight any charges vigorously and thoroughly in court."

Don Lemon looks like he's off the hook in Minnesota ... because a judge reportedly swatted away the U.S. Department of Justice's first attempt to charge him with a crime over an anti-ICE protest that tore through a church service.

CNN reports a federal magistrate judge rejected the DOJ's bid to bring charges against the former CNN host, who reported live from Sunday's protest at Cities Church in St. Paul.

U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi, who is in meeting with federal prosecutors in Minnesota, is reportedly "enraged" at the judge's decision.

A 5-year-old boy was allegedly used as "bait" by ICE agents making arrests in a Minneapolis suburb Tuesday afternoon, according to the superintendent of the Columbia Heights Public School District.

Zena Stevnik told reporters Liam Ramos was apprehended at his home by ICE agents on Tuesday after returning from school with his father, according to Minnesota Public Radio News.

Stevnik said another adult in the driveway at the house begged the agents to let him take care of the child ... but was refused. Liam was told to knock on the door of the house to see if anyone else was home, MPR News reports.

Agents took Liam and his father away in an SUV, and they were transported to Texas.

A lawyer representing Ramos' family told MPR News ... "just because something is legal doesn’t mean it’s moral. Yes, they may have the legal authority to detain a 5-year-old, but why?”

Stevnik said nearly a third of students in the district have been missing classes, as ICE activity in Minnesota has escalated dramatically, and violently, since the beginning of the year.

A lawyer and activist who allegedly helped organize a protest at a church in St. Paul, Minnesota, earlier this week has been arrested.

U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi announced Nekima Levy Armstrong was taken into custody at her direction Thursday morning, writing in a social media post ... "Listen loud and clear: WE DO NOT TOLERATE ATTACKS ON PLACES OF WORSHIP."

Bondi said Chauntyll Louisa Allen was also arrested.

Renee Good was shot in the left forearm, right breast and left side of her head during an encounter with ICE training officer Jonathan Ross earlier this month in Minneapolis, an autopsy commissioned by her family has revealed.

The information was released by the family's lawyers at Romanucci & Blandin, according to the New York Times, as the family awaits the results of an autopsy being conducted by Minnesota's Hennepin County Medical Examiner’s Office. Last week, the Minneapolis Fire and Police departments found she had been shot four times.

The results reveal the forearm and chest gunshots were not immediately life-threatening, while the third shot to her head is what ended her life. The autopsy reportedly says the fatal shot entered near her left temple and exited the right side of her head. A fourth graze wound that did not penetrate her body was also reported.

Local and federal authorities are investigating after a group of anti-ICE protesters crashed a Minnesota church service ... and one of the demonstrators tells TMZ she'd still do it all over again.

Here's the deal ... the DOJ and local police are investigating after protesters interrupted a service at the Cities Church in St. Paul ... which is getting major headlines because Don Lemon was in the mix live-streaming the incident.

Chauntyll Allen, leader of Black Lives Matter Twin Cities, who was among the group, tells TMZ … the jarring protest inside the church was necessary to make clear to the parishioners that having a pastor who is also an ICE official is unacceptable.

Don Lemon is apparently in the DOJ's crosshairs after he was covering a group of ICE protesters who interrupted a church service in Minnesota's Twin Cities ... and at least one parishioner wants them all charged.

Here's the deal ... The former CNN host -- now an independent journalist -- live-streamed from Cities Church in St. Paul, MN, where a bunch of demonstrators interrupted the Sunday service to protest the presence of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in the state. One of the pastors is allegedly an ICE official.

Cities Church parishioner Caleb Phillips tells TMZ … the protesters rocked the church and scared the hell out of a lot of good people … but ultimately, they accomplished nothing.

The St. Paul Police Dept. has opened an investigation after anti-ICE protesters crashed a church service ... and Don Lemon may be ensnared.

St. Paul police tell TMZ … the department is actively working the Sunday incident as a disorderly conduct investigation.

Due to the open case, police declined all other questions ... including whether Lemon was exempt from the investigation.

2:46 PM PT -- A DHS spokesperson tells TMZ ... “Fearing for their lives and the safety of others, agents grabbed his arm, but he broke free. The agents struck, and he immediately dropped a wrench -- a deadly weapon. Agents extracted him from the car, but he continued to violently resist arrest including grabbing an agent’s throat. This alien was ultimately arrested for aggressive driving, fleeing from law enforcement, and physically resisting arrest. Reminder obstructing law enforcement is a federal crime and a felony.”

As Customs and Border Protection officers swarm a man to arrest him in Minnesota, one agent repeatedly knees him in the head and face ... and it's all on video.

Footage out of Minneapolis shows a scrum of Border Patrol agents detaining a man in the middle of a busy street, piling on top of him ... and at one point during the struggle, one agent is seen smashing his knee into the guy's face. Another of the agents appears to notice they're on camera, and seems to check his colleague, who delivers a last blow to the man's forehead.

Renee Good -- the woman shot to death by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent  in her SUV on Jan. 7 -- was pumped full of bullets in various parts of her body, according to a new report.

Good was struck 4 times in the chest, arm and head when ICE agent Jonathan Ross pulled out his gun and fired into the SUV as Good was trying to drive away on a residential street in Minneapolis, the Minnesota Star Tribune said, citing a fire department incident report.

Earlier media accounts stated Good was hit 3 times during her tense encounter with ICE agents, who were conducting an enforcement operation in the neighborhood.

President Donald Trump has threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act in response to ongoing protests over ICE activity in the state of Minnesota.

The Insurrection Act has not been used in more than three decades -- last employed during the 1992 Los Angeles riots. President George H.W. Bush sent troops to the city at California Governor Pete Wilson's request following unrest in the wake of four LAPD officers being acquitted of police brutality in the videotaped beating of Rodney King.

Minnesota Governor Tim Walz has not requested federal assistance ... quite the opposite. He has called for ICE and CBP personnel to leave the state.

POTUS posted on Truth Social Thursday morning ... "If the corrupt politicians of Minnesota don’t obey the law and stop the professional agitators and insurrectionists from attacking the Patriots of I.C.E., who are only trying to do their job, I will institute the INSURRECTION ACT, which many Presidents have done before me, and quickly put an end to the travesty that is taking place in that once great State."

The Insurrection Act allows the President to deploy the military and federalize state National Guard forces in limited circumstances.

Before 1992, it was utilized during a civil rights dispute in 1957 in Arkansas, and during the Civil War and Jim Crow eras.

This isn't the first time Trump's threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act ... he floated the idea of invoking the act in October on cities like Portland and Chicago.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents got a heated reception upon entering a restaurant in Minnesota ... with customers screaming profanities at them and demanding they get out.

Video of the wild interaction this week has surfaced online ... beginning when agents storm into Cancun Mexican Grill & Cantina in St. Paul, MN and head for the bathroom.

It doesn't look like they need to use the little federal agents' room either ... it seems they're searching for someone -- because they walk right back out into the restaurant after a quick look around.

Journalist Laura Jedeed should be considered a domestic terrorist, according to the Donald Trump administration's warped metric ... but she tells "TMZ Live," she was hired by ICE anyway!

This is a wild story ... Laura was curious about how diligent the Dept. of Homeland Security is about screening ICE candidates during the agency's current hiring surge ... so she took a skills-based resume to a jobs event to find out how she'd fare.

Despite maintaining an online portfolio chock-full of Trump hate and anti-ICE sentiment, Jedeed -- who says she has her own page on an Antifa watch website -- passed ICE's shoddy screening process with flying colors.

Jonathan Ross -- the ICE agent who shot and killed Renee Good while she was behind the wheel of her car in Minneapolis last week -- reportedly suffered internal bleeding from their confrontation ... according to Trump administration officials.

Two unnamed U.S. officials told CBS News Ross sustained an injury to his torso, but did not divulge how extensive the bleeding was. The Department of Homeland Security confirmed the report of the injury, CBS News reports.

As you know ... Ross shot Good in traffic on a residential street in Minneapolis on January 7. Good appeared to try to drive away from the scene as ICE officers ordered her out of her Honda Pilot. Ross, standing at the front of her vehicle, fired shots at Good, fatally striking her in the head. Video appears to show physical contact between Ross and the vehicle.

Tuesday night, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche told Fox News Digital ... "There is currently no basis for a criminal civil rights investigation." The incident was being investigated by the FBI ... the bureau excluded Minnesota state investigators from the case last week.

Joe Rogan's not the kind of guy to mince words about tough topics, and he made his views on ICE's methods clear -- comparing their tactics to what Gestapo police did in Nazi Germany.

The podcasting giant questioned the agency's tactics, comparing them to the Gestapo's ... the secret police who routinely rounded up targeted groups, including Jewish people and anyone who disagreed with the Nazi Party, during WWII. Rogan was talking with Kentucky Senator Rand Paul in Tuesday's episode of the podcast.

Rogan said he thinks a good chunk of the American population is in favor of criminals being arrested, he thinks lots of the same people believed the agency is "operating illegally."

He pointed out many of who've been taken into custody by ICE are innocent Americans who "just don’t have their papers on them." Hundreds of people have been illegally detained at random on streets across the United States, prompting legal challenges in multiple cities.

ICE and CBP officers have arrested more than 70,000 people with no criminal records, NBC News reports.

Rogan discussed the death of Renee Nicole Good, who was shot and killed by an ICE agent in Minneapolis last week, and said watching video of the shooting was "very ugly."

Rogan questioned whether Good's shooting was justified, as he feels she was trying to drive away from the ICE agents who'd approached her car when she was shot.

"Sinners" writer and director Ryan Coogler turned a night of celebration into heavy reflection ... getting visibly choked up as he called attention to the killing of Renee Nicole Good on a Minneapolis street by an ICE agent last week.

During the National Board of Review Awards gala in NYC Tuesday night, Ryan -- accepting his win for Best Original Screenplay -- didn’t mince words. He explained he was distracted, as his heart wasn’t in New York at all ... it was in Minnesota, where tensions have exploded since Renee was shot and killed last Wednesday.