MINNEAPOLIS — A prominent civil rights attorney and at least two other people involved in an anti-immigration enforcement protest that disrupted a service at a Minnesota church have been arrested, Trump administration officials said Thursday, even as a judge rebuffed related charges against journalist Don Lemon.

Vice President JD Vance, speaking in Minneapolis, urged state and local law enforcement to collaborate with federal officials and said protesters must stop getting in their way.

Attorney General Pam Bondi posted online that Nekima Levy Armstrong had been arrested. On Sunday, protesters entered the Cities Church in St. Paul, where an U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement official serves as a pastor. Bondi later posted that a second person had been arrested, and FBI Director Kash Patel announced a third.

The Justice Department quickly opened a civil rights investigation after the group interrupted services by chanting “ICE out” and “Justice for Renee Good,” referring to the 37-year-old mother of three who was fatally shot by an ICE officer in Minneapolis earlier this month.

“Listen loud and clear: WE DO NOT TOLERATE ATTACKS ON PLACES OF WORSHIP,” the attorney general wrote on X.

Cities Church belongs to the Southern Baptist Convention and lists one of its pastors as David Easterwood, who leads an ICE field office. Many Baptist churches have pastors who also work other jobs.

Prominent leaders of the Southern Baptist Convention have argued that compassion for migrant families cannot justify violating a sacred space during worship.

Attorneys representing the church hailed the arrests.

“The U.S. Department of Justice acted decisively by arresting those who coordinated and carried out the terrible crime,” said Doug Wardlow, director of litigation for True North Legal, which calls itself a public interest civil rights firm, in a statement.

Levy Armstrong, an attorney and longtime activist, had called for the pastor affiliated with ICE to resign, saying his dual role poses a “fundamental moral conflict.”

“You cannot lead a congregation while directing an agency whose actions have cost lives and inflicted fear in our communities,” she said Tuesday. “When officials protect armed agents, repeatedly refuse meaningful investigation into killings like Renee Good’s, and signal they may pursue peaceful protesters and journalists, that is not justice — it is intimidation.”

State and local elected officials have opposed the crackdown that has become a major focus of Department of Homeland Security sweeps.

Vance arrived in the state less than a month after Renee Good was killed. He has called Good’s death a “tragedy of her own making.”

Before his Minnesota visit, Vance warned the church protesters: “Those people are going to be sent to prison so long as we have the power to do so.”

Later in Minneapolis, he urged state and city law enforcement to help federal immigration officers.

“We’re doing everything that we can to lower the temperature,” Vance said, adding that he wants “state and local officials to meet us halfway.”

Greg Bovino, a U.S. Border Patrol official, said Minneapolis police failed to help federal agents Wednesday who were surrounded by protesters at a gas station. Minneapolis police responded later that they hadn’t received any requests from federal agents for assistance on Wednesday.

Levy Armstrong has helped lead protests after the high-profile police-involved killings of Black Americans, including George Floyd, Philando Castile and Jamar Clark. She is a former president of the NAACP’s Minneapolis branch.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem posted a photo on X of Levy Armstrong with her arms behind her back next to a person wearing a badge. Noem said she faces a charge under a statute that bars threatening or intimidating someone exercising a right.

Patel posted on X that Chauntyll Louisa Allen, the second person Bondi said was arrested, is charged under a law that prohibits physically obstructing or using the threat of force to intimidate or interfere with a person seeking to participate in a service at a house of worship. Patel said William Kelly has also been arrested.

A message seeking comment was sent to Allen’s and Kelly’s attorney.

Saint Paul Public Schools, where Allen is a board of education member, said it is aware of her arrest but will not comment on pending legal matters.